Night Gardens

Hi,
I am assuming that fragrance is important to you, since thats the only thing thats apparent at night. Also the ice age was the last time we had snow, so some of the plants mentioned here may not be really hardy...

The most spectacular night flowering plants are the "Queen of the night" cactii - of the genus cereus / selenicereus. I have ones that flower in white, yellow and red and are as large as dinner plates. The white one has a fabulous scent but the rest have none. They are tender plants and bloom just once or twice a year, unfortunately. Another marvellous night scented plant is Hesperis matronalis (Mother of the evening / sweet rocket).

For continuous scent / flowering:
Cestrum / Night jessamine (and the closely related Carolina jessamine) has an intoxicating perfume that will fill up the entire garden. The flowers are tiny, tubular, greenish - yellow but borne in large clusters. The plant is poisonous to rabbits and other wildlife.

Nicotiana alata has a strong fragrance late in the evening. Night Phloxes (Midnight candy) have a vanilla like perfume at night. Other scented phloxes have a sweet honey perfume, according to the books, but I haven't gotten to grow any phloxes as yet.

The Star of Peru (Mirabilis Jalapa) has a late evening jasmine like perfume. I have a yellow, dark pink, red and white varieties. (Not all have a perfume). It grows easily from seed. Silene nutans (catchfly) has a hyacinth like perfume at night. There are also the night scented stocks (insignifigant flowers with a fantastic scent), the night "morning glory" (ipomoea alba) and evening primroses (this causes allergies in some children / people). We get these as part of a fragrant mix from a company called Mayford.

Night Gladiolus - Gladiolus tristus has a spicy clove-like perfume at night. I got these as part of a box of glads from Hedeco. (I think the variety is the one I have mentioned, but am not sure). Another clove scented flower is the pale pink Dianthus plumarius. It also flowers late evening.

Datura / brugmansia innoxia has lovely, large trumpet like flowers (white usually, but also yellow and pinkish-red). The plant is dangerously poisonous and a no-no if u have kids / pets. It has a sweet, sickly scent, most prominent at night. I have pups that just love to dig up anything I plant so do not grow this as such. It grows wild in these parts though.

Seasonal scented flowers:
August hostas have a honey scented flowers. Fragrant Columbines smell like the honeysuckle and flower at night. Both are easy to grow.

Fairy Lily: (Chlidanths fragrans) bears yellow, slightly fragrant flowers all summer. Several other lillies (they are called spider lillies here) are fragrant at night, but flower during the day as well. The tuberose also has a wonderful night fragrance that reduces (but does not vanish completely) during the day. Several day lilies and yuccas bloom at night as well (but have no scent).

Sorry for the long post; hope it helps. I am not sure of the spellings of the botanical names.

Cheers