A moon garden, also known as a twilight garden, evening garden, night garden, moonlight garden, or dream garden, is a type of

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

designed to be enjoyed at dusk and nighttime. Fragrant flowers, light-colored vegetation or blooms that are visible by moonlight, blossoms that open at night instead of day, and plants which attract night pollinators you can hear, are all elements of a moon garden. The different effects produced by moonlight compared to sunlight in human color perception emphasize the colors of certain flowers more than others, bringing out different tones which are not available during daytime or with artificial lights. Night-blooming plants are typically moth, bat or wind pollinated. Planning an evening garden can perform double-duty as a setting for evening entertaining such as barbecues and parties. In India, the

Mehtab Bagh Mehtab Bagh () is a charbagh complex in Agra, North India. It lies north of the Taj Mahal complex and the Agra Fort on the opposite side of the Yamuna River, in the flood plains. The garden complex, square in shape, measures about and is perfe ...

, meaning 'moonlight garden', was built around 1530 by Emperor Babur and later became part of the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

complex. It featured night-blooming plants, white plastered walkways, an octagonal reflecting pool, and a pavilion.

Design elements

White reflects better than darker colors, therefore choosing plants with white blooms work well for a moon garden. Paler blues and purples may also show in the gloom. Silvery foliage, such as those you would find in Mediterranean or arid climates, reflects in low light levels. A moon garden isn't just about sight, but about all the senses. Strong scents, the feeling of a breeze, or sound of movement will enhance the experience of a garden during the evening or night. Nighttime pollinators, such as moths and bats, are attracted to blooms open at night, strong scents and reflectiveness, and may be visible or audible in the garden. The moon garden's attraction to moths is said to be the night version of a

butterfly garden Butterfly gardening is a way to create, improve, and maintain habitat for lepidopterans including butterflies, skippers, and moths. Butterflies have four distinct life stages—egg, larva, chrysalis, and adult. In order to support and sustain ...

. Water elements might include a small trickling fountain to create soft sounds or reflect light with movement. A moon-gazing pond or birdbath of still water can reflect the Moon — the nighttime equivalent of a

reflecting pool A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a reflective surface. Design Reflecting pools are ...

. Low levels of

landscape lighting Landscape lighting or garden lighting refers to the use of outdoor illumination of private gardens and public landscapes; for the enhancement and purposes of safety, nighttime aesthetics, accessibility, security, recreation and sports, and s ...

can be appropriate, such as fairy lights for mood lighting, or solar LED lights to illuminate walkways. Electric lighting can create special effects using techniques such as uplighting and silhouetting. Striking features in daylight might disappear at night; they can be lit for nighttime focal points, or a new focal point can be chosen and illuminated.

Fireflies The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

are attracted to darker gardens.

Plants suited for moon gardens

Brugmansia suaveolens-yercaud-salem-India

Certain flowers and plants with specific colors and nocturnal habits are suited to moon gardens. Among these,

lilies ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...

angel's trumpet Angel's trumpet (also Angel's-trumpet and Angel's-trumpets) may refer to: * two closely related genera of poisonous flowering plants in the family Solanaceae: ** ''Brugmansia'', woody plants with pendulous flowers ** ''Datura ''Datura'' is a g ...

sweet rocket ''Hesperis matronalis'' is an herbaceous plant species in the family Brassicaceae. It has numerous common names, including dame's rocket, damask-violet, dame's-violet, dames-wort, dame's gilliflower, night-scented gilliflower, queen's gilliflo ...

, moonflower, four o'clock flower, bearded iris, night gladiolus,

evening primrose ''Oenothera'' is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to ...

magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

snowdrop ''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single sm ...

foxglove ''Digitalis'' ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves. ''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in shap ...

, Japanese dogwood, garden phlox, lamb's ear, silvermound,

peonies The peony or paeony is a flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'' , the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae . Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguished, ...

, and

common lilac ''Syringa vulgaris'', the lilac or common lilac, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae, native to the Balkan Peninsula, where it grows on rocky hills.Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. Collins .Med-Check ...

are all commonly cultivated plants in moon gardens. White flowers are especially suited to moon gardens, but green, pink, and other pale colors are also common. Silver, white, or variegated leaves will work as well.

Night bloomers

Some of the night-blooming plants have names indicating this behavior, such as four o'clocks,

, night phlox, and moonflower. Other night-blooming flowers include

foamflower ''Tiarella'', the foamflowers, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Saxifragaceae. The generic name ''Tiarella'' means "little turban", which suggests the shape of the seed capsules. Worldwide there are seven species, one each in eastern ...

tuberose ''Agave amica'', formerly ''Polianthes tuberosa'', the tuberose, is a perennial plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, extracts of which are used as a note in perfumery. Now widely grown as an ornamental plant, the species was o ...

, night-blooming cereus, night-blooming lotus, night gladiolus, Nottingham catchfly, and chocolate daisy. The citron daylily, unlike most day lilies, opens in midafternoon and stays open through the night. File:White Mirabilis flower.jpg, Four o'clocks File:Oenothera biennis FWS-00.jpg,

Evening primrose ''Oenothera'' is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to ...

File:Ipomoea alba270483816.jpg, Moonflower File:Night Blooming Cereus Blossom.JPG, Night-blooming cereus File:2 Nymphaea Tropical Night-Blooming Water Lily, Waterlily, Tiger Lotus (Nymphaea lotus).jpg, Night-blooming lotus

Night scents

While daytime pollinators use vision to locate their sources of nectar, night pollinators such as moths and bats have poor vision and operate in low light levels. Therefore they are attracted to strongly scented blossoms. In response to changing light levels, plants such as Night-scented stock ('' Matthiola longipetala'') pump cells to open blooms as night falls, and close up again when daylight returns. Gardenias ('' Gardenia jasminoides'') put out stronger scents at night, and Night-blooming Jessamine (''

Cestrum nocturnum ''Cestrum nocturnum'', the lady of the night, night-blooming jasmine, night-blooming jessamine, night-scented jessamine, night-scented cestrum or poisonberry, is a species of plant in the potato family Solanaceae. It is native to the West Indies, ...

'') has such a strong scent it is recommended to plant it a bit away from the house.

Silver foliage

Silver-leafed plants are good reflectors and contrast for low light levels, such as Silver ragwort ('' Senecio cineraria''), Texas sage ('' Leucophyllum frutescens''), and several plants in the ''

Artemisia Artemisia may refer to: People * Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BC), queen of Halicarnassus under the First Persian Empire, naval commander during the second Persian invasion of Greece * Artemisia II of Caria (died 350 BC), queen of Caria under th ...

'' family. File:Dusty miller -- Jacobaea maritima 'Silverdust'.jpg, Jacobaea maritima 'Silverdust' File:Ornamental Texas sage in bloom.jpg, Texas sage File:Artemisia absinthium 01.JPG,

Artemisia absinthium ''Artemisia absinthium'' (wormwood, grand wormwood, absinthe, absinthium, absinthe wormwood, mugwort, wermout, wermud, wormit, wormod) is a species of '' Artemisia'', native to temperate regions of Eurasia and North Africa, and widely naturalize ...

File:Starr 031001-2122 Artemisia mauiensis.jpg, Artemisia mauiensis File:0 Stachys byzantina - Yvoire (2).JPG, Lamb's Ear

Notable gardens

Gardens open to the public which have moon gardens, and notable gardens originally designed and constructed with a moon garden, include: *

in India * Sonnenberg Gardens in New York * Four Arts Botanical Gardens in Florida *

Edison and Ford Winter Estates The Edison and Ford Winter Estates contain a historical museum and 21 acre (8.5 hectares) botanical garden on the adjacent sites of the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford beside the Caloosahatchee River in Southwestern Florida. It is ...

in Florida * Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens in Texas *

The Gardens on Spring Creek The Gardens on Spring Creek is an 18-acre (72,843 m2) botanical garden located on the Spring Creek corridor in Fort Collins, Colorado. Located at 2145 Centre Avenue, the Gardens is owned and managed by the City of Fort Collins. A 501(c)(3) non-pr ...

in Colorado *

San Francisco Botanical Garden The San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum (formerly Strybing Arboretum) is located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Its 55 acres (22.3 ha) represents nearly 9,000 different kinds of plants from around the world, with p ...

in California

Other uses of the term

Sometimes a garden is named a 'moon garden' because it features a significant structural element such as a

moon gate A moon gate () is a circular opening in a garden wall that acts as a pedestrian passageway and is a traditional architectural element in Chinese gardens. The gates serve as an inviting entrance into gardens of the rich upper class in China. T ...

, moon window, or

moon bridge A moon bridge (月桥), also known as “''sori-bashi"'' (反り橋) in Japanese, or as a drum bridge (“taiko-bashi” 太鼓橋),Liu, Yan (2020-09-01). "A full moon in another land: The Moon Bridge in the Japanese garden of the Huntington Libra ...

, however the purpose there is different than a garden designed for nighttime experience. Moon gates and moon windows are constructed to frame a view, have a cultural or spiritual meaning, or may symbolically represent the Moon. Moon bridges are usually ornamental and placed so their half-circular shape reflects into still water making a full circle which symbolizes the Moon. ' Planting by the signs' is often called 'moon gardening' because scheduling planting, cultivating, and harvesting of crops is based on

moon phases Concerning the lunar month of ~29.53 days as viewed from Earth, the lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion, which can be expressed quantitatively using areas or angles, or described qualitatively using the t ...