Moonlight Garden

When I plan my future gardens, there are two objectives I keep in mind: form and function. I tend to favor function. There are tangible rewards for growing vegetables, fruits, edible flowers, and herbs. You can literally taste your success, which goes on to literally nourish your body, rather than just emitting an abstract sense of victory.

However, my eyes can be bigger than my stomach. I do have moments when I want a plant just for its looks. I love how my jade plant and spider plant look. I like five-color silverbeet in part for its five colors. So the wishlist moonlight garden I am about to describe is the culmination of those moments.

A moonlight garden is one in which plants with white or silver foliage or flowers are planted. The idea behind this is that the moon's rays reflect off the plants at night, leading to a glow-in-the-dark garden, perfect for evening parties or gatherings. I find this idea classy--all white flowers, lots of silvery leaves, all illuminating your guests as you entertain them in the dark of the night. It would be nice on quiet, lonesome nights too. A little surreal, maybe. At any rate, I want to try to create this kind of garden someday, and these are the plants I want to grow in it. As always with my plant lists, click on the hyperlinks to see a picture of the plant.

Iris germanica: Irises have always been some of my favorite flowers. Their elegant ruffles would fit in perfectly with the aesthetic of a moonlight garden. Which is to say, classic.

Hydrangea macrophylla 'White Ball': While most of my memories regarding hydrangeas come from my childhood vacations on Cape Cod, these beautiful bushes grow in my Midwestern hometown as well. Hydrangeas are fun as well as versatile. I don't know what pH level the soil needs to be for the flowers to be white rather than blue or pink, but the effect is worth it.

Convallaria magallis (Lily-of-the-valley): I was not familiar with these plants until this year. These are some of the sweetest flowers I've ever seen, and I would love to cultivate them someday.

Hellebore niger (White hellebore): Many of the plants on this list bloom a few feet off the ground. Irises grow atop tall inflorescences, and hydrangeas grow on sizeable bushes. Hellebores, however, grow close to the ground, so they would provide layering and depth to a moonlight garden. In addition, hellebores bloom in late winter and early spring, so they would provide white when most plants don't.

Salvia officinalis (Common sage): Writing about sage makes me happy since I already have a member of this species. My seedling's leaves are not yet pubescent, but someday they will be, and it's the pubescence (read: hair) that makes them silvery. The best part about using sage in a moonlight garden is that it provides form and function, as sage is a wonderful culinary herb.

Kalanchoe rhombopilosa: To switch things up a little bit, I'd like a white succulent in my moonlight garden. This Kalanchoe looks somewhat like an upright shelf fungus, and the entire plant (minus the flowers) is white and brown. This would, like the hellebores, give white color that's close to the ground. It would also provide a very different texture than most of the other plants.

Artemisia ludoviciana (Louisiana artemisia): This silvery bush has waist-high foliage, so the entire plant fits the "moonlight" ideal.

Senecio serpens (Blue chalksticks): Blue chalksticks are primarily ground cover, similar to the Kalanchoe. Some varieties look more blue or green than silver, but the silver ones are impressively so.

Cerastium 'Silver Carpet' (Snow in summer): This ground cover-y plant is, in one sense, the perfect plant for a moonlight garden. That's because snow in summer has both silver foliage and white flowers. Both are very pretty to boot!

Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls' (Kidneyweed): As the cultivar name implies, kidneyweed is an ideal "spiller" plant for containers. It also makes excellent silver ground cover. A few pots of this have been growing at the greenhouse this spring, and it's a delight just to walk by them. They look even more silvery in person than in the photo.

Athyrium niponicum pictum (Japanese painted fern): I have a weak spot in my heart for ferns, and this one is no exception. Japanese painted ferns come in several colors, but most commonly seem to be silver with burgundy stems. This contrast would really liven up a moonlight garden and keep it from becoming a white-and-green monotony. Not to mention the fact that ferns like to bush out and take up some space.

Bonus: I'm going to go ahead and list Cylindropuntia echinocarpa (Silver cholla) with my moonlight garden selections. This cactus' spines are so incredibly white that a specimen would undoubtably go in this garden, should I end up living in a region that could support it. (And judging by the fact that I really want to live in the American southwest at some point, the inclusion of this plant seems likely.)

I realize that not all of these plants would grow in a single environment, so I will let my region dictate which I choose to grow. I would love to grow them all, though. You might notice I skipped over a couple of common choices for moonlight gardens. I have my reasons: lamb's ear is missing--this is because lamb's ear is incredibly invasive, and I prefer not to plant invasive species.

What combinations of these plants would you like to grow? Do you think a Japanese painted fern would look good next to irises? What about kidneyweed next to the Kalanchoe?

Next post: more views from around campus.

P.S. Thinking about it, Silver cholla would look really snazzy in a container with blue chalksticks and maybe some Senecio rowleyanus (string of pearls). The cholla would be the thriller, the chalksticks would fill in space, and the string of pearls would spill over. Perfect!