Night-Scented Flowers

- by Debra Anchors

Odorless by day, their fragrance at night is intoxicating.

If you spend time during the evening in the garden, or if you have the window open as you sleep, you would really enjoy night-scented flowers.  They are some of the loveliest scents of the plant kingdom, and they engage snooping.  Even when you take cuttings for a vase, these flowers “remember” to release their fragrance at dusk and then hold tight to their scent during the daylight hours. Some of the night-scented flowers are listed below.

Four O'Clock

Four O’Clock flowers come in cheerful shades of reddish-purple, yellow, pink, and white (some are bi-colored).  They open in late afternoon and smell lovely throughout the evening and night.

Night-Scented Stock
Photo courtesy of TM Seeds

Night-Scented Stock looks so unassuming by day that you could toss it aside as a weed, but at night its cross-shaped pinkish-purple flowers release a heavy, intoxicating aroma. 

Hosta, Royal Standard
Photo courtesy of Hosta Patch

Hostas, for the most part, are scentless, but some smell very sweet at night. ‘Royal Standard’ blooms for weeks in August and September with large white flowers on stalks three feet tall.  Other fragrant hostas include ‘Fragrant Blue’, ‘Honeybelle’, ‘So Sweet’ and ‘August Lily.’

Tobacco

Tobaccos are available in a variety of colors and include many species with flowers that release a rich, sweet fragrance at night. The plants often look inelegant and they have sticky, smelly, poisonous leaves. But, many gardeners are willing to overlook those faults for the sake of their floral perfume.    

Other flowers perfuming the air at night include many species of Lily (Madonna, Easter, Gold-band, Regal, and the Aurelian and Oriental hybrids), Moonflower, and Soapwort (this one is invasive and grows anywhere, so plant it away from your garden beds). 

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Leave a legacy, but garden like you’ll live forever! 
-Debra

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