GARDENINGShine on

Moon gardens designed to beam when bathed in moonlight

Planning this year’s garden? My guess is you’re envisioning plants bathed in daylight. But the problem is that by nightfall, when the sun has set and you’re ready to kick back at home, you won’t be able to see and fully enjoy the fruits of your gardening labor without flooding the yard with artificial lighting. And that’s not relaxing at all.

Instead, consider planting a moon garden specifically designed to be enjoyed by the light of the moon.

Plants with silver, variegated or bright foliage, white or light-colored flowers, or blooms that open only at night are ideal choices for a moon garden, as are highly fragrant plants. Plant them along a walkway or near your deck or patio, where you can enjoy them up close, or within view of a window.

My favorite white, moon-reflecting blooms include the aptly named moonflower (Ipomoea alba), Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum superbum), four o’clock (Mirabilis jalapa), sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum), evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), foxglove (Digitalis), petunias, New Guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri), and geranium (Pelargonium).

Night pollinators such as the sphinx moth love them, too.

Spring bloomers, like lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis), daffodil (Narcissus) and azalea (Rhododendron spp.), and lateblooming species like chrysanthemum and autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora) extend the season.

Plants with standout foliage include spotted dead nettle (Lamium), Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum), Jack Frost Siberian bugloss (Brunnera microphylla), variegated hostas, silver lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantine), dusty miller (Jacobaea maritima), Russian sage (Salvia yangii or Perovskia atriplicifolia), silver mound wormwood (Artemisia schmidtiana’ Silver mound’) and variegated euonymus varieties.

They remain visible after sundown and especially seem to glow under a full moon.

Highly fragrant plants like mock orange (Philadelphus pubescens), gardenia

DEBORAH SILVER VIA AP This 2005image provided by landscape and garden designer Deborah Silver shows a moon garden she designed and planted at the Cranbrook Educational Community museum complex in Bloomfield Hills.