Your
YARD AND GARDEN

Keep the evening hours in mind

Dave Robson

Enjoying your garden in the evening should be a goal in any type of major landscaping. When the vast majority of people work during the day, the weekends tend to be the only time when gardens can be enjoyed. Nightlighting is one means of enjoying plants. Careful placement of lights to create highlights on plants, or used to provide interesting shadows and silhouettes can add drama and interest to the yard and garden.

Careful selection of plants, colors and supplemental lighting can give your garden some enjoyment as the sun sets and the moon and stars rise. Using plants is easier and often cheaper than installing lights.

One of the key points of enjoying a landscape in the evening is the judicious use of whites, grays, silvers and pale colors. These colors tend to be less obvious during the day but come into their own in the evening.

Reds, purples, blues and oranges tend to bleed into black shapes in the dark. Whites and yellows are more luminous. If you desire to have a red, purple, or blue become highlighted, you'll need to provide supplemental lights on the plants. However, the colors still won't be as dynamic as they will during the day.

Whites also define flower borders as well as structures. Edging white flowers along a sidewalk will help someone move unhindered in the dark. This might be advantageous in the fall, using white chrysanthemums, to provide identification as the sun sets earlier and earlier. A thin white line on a step also lets people know to pick up their feet.

Using white flowering or foliage annual plants in pockets throughout the yard create a unifying effect during the twilight to evening hours. White ageratum, petunias, geraniums, vinca (particularly Pretty in White) coupled with dusty miller as a foliage plant can be pocketed in between shrubs, perennials or around trees. Foundation plantings mixing flowers with another singular color, such as yellow marigolds, will also provide 24-hour interest.

The following is a listing of white, silver and gray plants that stand out in the summer and fall. Those with more white tend to stand out more in the evening.

Whites/grays/silvers

Achillea—Yarrow
Ageratum
Alyssum
Artemesia— Silver Mounds
Aruncus—Goat's Beard
Aster
Astilbe
Athemis
Campanula
Centranthus
Chrysanthemum-Garden mums to Shasta Daisies
Clethra—Summersweet
Dianthus-Pinks
Digitalis—Foxglove
Galtonia—Slimmer
Hyacinth
Geranium
Gladiolus
Gypsophila— Baby's Breath
Hosta
Hydrangea
Lathyrus
Lily
Lychnis—Campion
Nicotiana-Flowering Tobacco
Nierembergia
Petunia
Phlox
Platycodon— Balloon Flower
Rose
Salvia
Symphoricarpos—
Snowberry
Thalictrum— Meadow Rue
Vinca 'Pretty in White'
Zinnia

Foliage and stems

Ajuga
Arum
Betula-Birch
Brunnera
'Hadspen Cream'
Buddleia davidii
'Harlequin'— Butterfly bush
Hedera helix 'Glorie de Marengo'—English Ivy
Hosta
Lamium
Osmatnus—grass
Populus alba-White poplar
Phalaris— Ribbon Grass
Vinca major 'Variegata'—
Variegate Periwinkle

Herbs

Horehound
Rosemary
Sage
Stachys—Lamb's Ear

David Robson is an Extension Educator, Horticulture, at the Springfield Extension Center, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Illinois. You can write to Robson in care of Illinois Country Living, P.O. Box 3787, Springfield, IL 62708. Telephone: 217-782-6515. E-Mail: robsond@idea.ag.uiuc.edu

12 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING JUNE 1996