As the sun slips from the sky, these stunning night-scented blooms reveal scent and luminosity. Clare Foggett picks her top ten flowers that smell beautiful in the twinkling evening garden.
Twilight flowers that smell strongly at dusk have qualities that are revealed or enhanced as the sun goes down. This adds an extra dimension to a garden and allows you to make the most of your outdoorspace in the evenings, which takes on a particular importance if you’re out at work all day.
Night-scented plants release heady perfumes, while the cool tones of blues, lilacs, creams and whites come to the fore as they develop a luminescence in low light levels.
Use our top ten favourites around a seating area and grow some in pots near doors and windows so that their fragrance drifts indoors too.
Top 10 favourite night-scented flowers
1.Matthiola longipetala subsp. bicornis
Night-scented stock is a hardy annual that’s quick and easy to grow from seed. Although its short, wiry stems look a tad scruffy in daylight when the flowers are tightly closed, the pale pink, lilac and ivory blooms unfurl as the light fades. This is when they gleam like tiny stars and emit an intoxicating perfume. Sow it direct into soil that’s been raked to a fine crumb at any point in spring for summer flowers.
2. Dianthus
The spicy clove aroma of garden pinks lingers well into the evening. White ‘Memories’ was bred by Whetman Pinks in Devon and is similar to classic ‘Mrs Sinkins’, but much improved. It is compact with narrow, grey-green leaves and sparkly white blooms. Check out Whetmans’ Scent First range for some of the best scented pinks. Dianthus have a long flowering season, from May to October, if you keep deadheading, and it’s easy to take cuttings from them, too.
3. Sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis)
The clusters of purple and white flowers on the tall stems of sweet rocket, gently glow at dusk, which is also when their sweet fragrance is at its best. Sweet rocket is a biennial, so it needs to be sown in the summer, grown on and planted out in autumn. Then, leave it to its own devices and it will produce its fragrant flowers the following summer. Quite often it will seed itself about for displays in future years. It thrives in full sun or light shade and free-draining soil.
4. Zaluzianskya ovata
Plant table-top pots with night phlox, a compact tender perennial that’s native to South Africa, whose scented blooms pack a punch. The deep-pink buds open in early evening to reveal unusual, white, heart-shaped petals and an intense evening perfume. Overwinter somewhere frost-free or treat it as an annual. Try Crocus for plants.
5. Gladiolus murielae
For late-summer scent and evening luminosity, plant bulbs of Abyssinian gladiolus, more commonly known as acidanthera, in pots. This tender bulb should be planted in late spring and will soon produce strappy green leaves and slim flower spikes with white petals and burgundy centres from August until October. If you want it to last from year to year, it is best to dig up the corms and store them frost free, as you would a dahlia tuber.
6. Trachelospermum jasminoides
This highly scented evergreen climber is a must if you live in a milder part of the country or have a warm courtyard garden in the city. Its white starry flowers – like little propellors up close – release a heady scent that’s strongest in the evening. It’s a twining climber that doesn’t self cling, so it will need wires or trellis to support it, and may need a few of its stems tying in at first, to give it a helping hand. Make sure it has free-draining soil – it doesn’t like soggy, waterlogged conditions.
7. Lilies
One of the most evocative scents of summer has to be that of lilies. Among all the flowers that smell, they’re one of the strongest – too strong for some people, but if you’re a fan, you won’t regret planting a few bulbs of Lilium regale, to enjoy its heady scent on summer evenings. For a more refined look, consider Lilium longiflorum, which has elegantly elongated trumpets in pure white. All oriental lilies are strongly perfumed. Try ‘Casa Blanca’, which produces huge, trumpet-shaped flowers on stems up to 1m high. All three have white blooms that sparkle in the gloaming. If you grow them in containers, make sure that they’re large and weighty – lilies can get top heavy and pots can easily blow over in windy weather. Also watch out for scarlet lily beetles and their larvae, which can quickly strip plants to skeletons.
8. Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum)
Billowing honeysuckles fill the evening air with their sweet perfume – a quintessential English garden scent. Try growing one to engulf an archway or porch with its clusters of pretty tubular flowers. ‘Belgica’ is an early-flowering cultivar that starts to bloom in May or June, with ruby-pink flowers that turn apricot-yellow as they age. Or try ‘Graham Thomas’ for later flowers in June and July, in creamy yellow and white. Both vigorous climbers, they’ll need support to scramble up.
9. Brugmansia
As light fades so does our ability to see, and small details in particular are lost. So try using plants with bold foliage and striking silhouettes. Brugmansia ticks both of these boxes with its large leaaves and impressive dangling trumpet-shaped flowers that smell strongly. This tender shrub is probably most straightforward to grow in a large container that you bring outside onto the terrace for summer, but can take into a greenhouse or conservatory to over-winter frost free.
10. Nicotiana sylvestris
White flowers can often appear washed out in strong sunshine, but twilight is their time to shine. This tobacco plant is a statuesque beauty with tall stems (up to 1.5m) and long, white, trumpet- shaped flowers held in drooping clusters that give off a sweet perfume at dusk. It will happily cope with some shade. Sow the dust-like seed of this annual in mid to late spring and plant out after all risk of frost has passed.
You may also like:
For flowers that smell gorgeous in the day, visit Fragrant flower varieties for National Fragrance Week
For plants with an otherworldly beauty, visit Seven plants with true blue flowers
To glamorise your garden in haste, visit 9 quick ways to improve your garden
