Moon Garden?

smockv
smockv Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

Hello Everyone,

I am interested in starting a Moon Garden- plants that bloom late in the evening or overnight, to attract more bats to my yard; my Purple Martins are hard workers but I need a night shift. What have your successes been? What should I watch out for? Do you have a favorite plant? Tell me your stories, I look forward to hearing all about them!

Regards,

Vanessa

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Comments

  • merlin44
    merlin44 Posts: 426 ✭✭✭✭

    I adore Moon Flowers. Beautiful white flower with a jasmine scent, magically open by the light of the moon.

  • smockv
    smockv Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

    @merlin44 Are you growing them currently, if so, under what conditions? Thank you for your reply!

    -V

  • merlin44
    merlin44 Posts: 426 ✭✭✭✭

    smockv I grow them among my morning glories. I love flowers that tend themselves.

  • Teresa Klepac
    Teresa Klepac Posts: 24 ✭✭✭

    I have had the same pot of moon flowers (Ipomoea) for over 5 years. I cut the seed pods off the plant after the bloom and drop them back into the pot so it re-seeds itself every year. Very easy plant to grow, Doesn't like a lot of water so it is drought-tolerant. I have heard that the plant and/or the blooms are poisonous but I have had it around my dogs and they have never been interested in chewing on it. Having said that, I would be cautious where you plant it. Dies back in the winter and comes back in the spring.

  • smockv
    smockv Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

    @Teresa Klepac Thank you for your info! Do you have any other night bloomers?

  • hmsadmin
    hmsadmin Posts: 123 admin
    edited August 2019

    Ooh, these are a couple of my favorites - Evening Primrose (bright yellow flowers that open in the evening, and great medicinal uses to boot!), and 4 o'clocks with their fragrant deep purple blooms. That said.. I have not yet grown or cared for either of these, so I can't give any advice there..

  • smockv
    smockv Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

    I will have to look into these. I have some 4 O'clock seeds that i have been saving; my grandmother had a lovely patch she let naturalize in their garden.

  • Teresa Klepac
    Teresa Klepac Posts: 24 ✭✭✭

    No I don't unfortunately. The reason for the moon flowers is very nostalgic. My maternal grandmother had them growing by her front porch every summer when I would visit. They are a sweet reminder of her. ❤️

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    I can’t wait to get a good moon garden started! For me it’s about an aesthetically pleasing garden under moonlight. Attracting bats would be a bonus I had not thought of! @smockv I grow night blooming jasmine and a Claredendron tree that opens in the evening and smells like Jasmine, plus when you rub it’s leaves it smells like peanut butter! I have blue star creeper in my pathways and Iberis (candytuft) highlighting the walkways. I also have skunk cabbage which the locals tell me do attract bats, but I haven’t noticed...though I’m not done at the creek where they grow at night.

    I'm always looking for the next great white flower to add for moonlight reflection. I think I will look into Moonflowers and if they grow here (PNW). I have morning glory but strive to eradicate it because it’s very invasive where I live.

    What plants do you know of that attract bats? Is it smell? Or color? Or??

  • pamelamackenzie
    pamelamackenzie Posts: 143 ✭✭✭

    Thanks for this topic. I am putting a moon garden on my to do list

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    Just to clarify, when you say you want to attract bats with your moon garden, do you mean attract insects for the bats to eat? Or do you mean attract nectar feeding bats? My understanding is that in the US, the only nectar feeders live in the desert southwest and feed off plants like cactus and agave.

    On a more practical note, I have never planted a moon garden, but I can vouch for moonflowers. They are easy to grow if you get them started early enough, and really beautiful.

  • smockv
    smockv Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

    @blevinandwomba I have seen two small bats flying around my yard at dusk. I am looking for experiences growing night blooming flowers. I have only ever had experience growing 4 O'clocks, considered night blooming. I know i am in garden zone 6 and I have quality amended soil in the bed I have planned for planting.

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    I'm just trying to figure out the connection between the moon garden and the bats. You're in Ohio, right? So the bats would be insect eaters. Night blooming plants would attract moths, which many species eat, I just wasn't sure if that is what you were aiming for.

    Regardless, thanks for helping the bats.

    Here's a link if you want to check out the species in your state.

    http://www.batcon.org/resources/media-education/species-profiles

  • smockv
    smockv Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

    I just wanted to say a great big thank you to y'all for all the wonderful information!

  • merlin44
    merlin44 Posts: 426 ✭✭✭✭

    Another night bloomer is the rattle gourd, a squash type white flower. Here in the Ozarks, they will reseed themselves and produce bottle/rattle shaped gourds.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @blevinandwomba Thanks for the great bat resource.

  • smockv
    smockv Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

    @merlin44 , I have saved some seeds from several different gourd varieties, I will have to add those in the spring! I used to live in the Ozark foothills- outside Ft. Smith, Ar. Such lovely part of the country! We are now in Southern Ohio Amish Country; this is quite the new experience!

    @blevinandwomba thank you for the bat resource!

  • Voodoo Flóra
    Voodoo Flóra Posts: 258 ✭✭✭

    Evening primrose is a beauty of an herbal plant, and it blooms as the sun is setting. I love mine. I bet you could plant it as when you first walk into the moon garden, like the sunset introduction.

  • maimover
    maimover Posts: 359 ✭✭✭

    This is a topic I’ve not heard of but think it’s incredibly enticing to think about those flowers in the moonlight; maybe someday...

  • Bats eat a lot of bugs, including mosquitoes where I am. I want to put up a bat house, but I never thought about doing a moon garden. Sounds fun! Maybe next year or five I'll get one planted 🤣

  • SuperC
    SuperC Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭

    Thrilling sound...Moon Garden. I was going to try something new this year, so this Moon Garden is it! Thanks for all of the plant names. I will be looking into where to buy these beauties to attract delightful bats. They swoop in the evenings here, so giving them flowers will keep all of us happy. Cheers

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This sounds wonderful. I remember growing up in FL we had 4 o'clocks. They were all around our patio and they smelled wonderful in the evening when they bloomed.

    Does anyone know if there are night bloomers that can thrive in the far north. I am zone 3b in South Central Alaska.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think a moon garden would be lovely, and any benefit to the bats would be a bonus! I always thought sitting on the porch at night with some fragrant night-blooming flowers would be so lovely.

    I'm going to have to add that to my list of things to plan for the future.

  • Karin
    Karin Posts: 272 ✭✭✭

    Wow I thought a "moon garden" was to do with planting by the moon, but this is a great idea. I had a boronia tree which has very unassuming brown flowers but they smell divine in the evening,so that might be another one you can try.

  • pseabolt
    pseabolt Posts: 48 ✭✭✭
    edited June 2020

    I’m not sure if these qualify but my husband has a plant that he calls an Angels Trumpet. I looked it up and the proper name is Brugmansia. They have a flower that is closed during the day and opens at dusk. I believe that the flower then dies off to be replaced. I’m sorry to sound so ignorant about it but he has it planted down by his “man cave” and I don’t really care for it, aesthetically it’s just not a plant that appeals to me but we have many friends that rave about how beautiful it is. shrugs We all have different taste, right? 😂 Anyway, this is what Google says about it :

    “Brugmansia is a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. They are woody trees or shrubs, with pendulous flowers, and have no spines on their fruit. Their large, fragrant flowers give them their common name of angel's trumpets, a name sometimes used for the closely related genus Datura.”

  • pseabolt
    pseabolt Posts: 48 ✭✭✭

    I’m not sure why my text grew and became bold print when I posted. Sorry. I really wasn’t trying to shout. Lol

  • Heidi
    Heidi Posts: 29 ✭✭✭

    Heard a little about moon gardens but never really thought much one way or another about them. After reading all these posts, I am excited to learn more and possibly begin incorporating some of the plants and making my own little nighttime paradise. Thanks everyone!

  • I bought an angel's trumpet a couple of years ago but it did not survive the Texas heat where I had it planted. It is poisonous to dogs so it was out of the yard in an area I don't check as often. Both our Lab and our Yorkie love plants and have to be watched when they are outside as they will raid my garden. Plants also have to be out of range in the house, esp. for the Yorkie. He's the pill who stripped my potted moringa tree (which did survive and is putting on more leaves in it's cardboard collared spot lol).

  • DebiB
    DebiB Posts: 92 ✭✭✭

    I love all of these wonderful suggestions for a moon garden! One thing I would add is some nicotiana also known as flowering tobacco. My nicotiana has beautiful, fragrant white flowers that open at dusk and has come back year after year for me (I’m in zone 7, don’t know how it would do further north). Good luck with your garden, I may try a moon garden one day. :)