Almost a shrub in size, the Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis jalapa) is one of the handsomest of night blooming plants, opening its variously coloured ephemeral flowers at about eight o'clock, and closing them again for good and all before three o'clock the following morning. It is a somewhat delicate plant and will only thrive in warm soils and sunny situations. A plant not often seen in gardens is the fragrant Sand Verbena (Abronia fragrans), a Californian perennial of fairly vigorous trailing habit, producing a quantity of beautiful flowers of purest white which open and yield a vanilla-like fragrance at night.
MACARTNEY ROSES
Although too delicate to be grown all the year through in the open air of this country, several of the Thorn apples or Daturas can easily be grown as half-hardy annuals, and during July and August are objects of great beauty. The mauve-tinged white trumpets of D. Ceratocaula which open and afford sweet fragrance[65][66] at night are especially handsome, but some of the other kinds are almost equally worth growing.
In addition to the evening primroses already referred to, there are several other very attractive species, some being delightfully fragrant. They are quite easily grown in almost any soil, and night-gardeners should cultivate all of them. Oenothera eximia, which likes a light soil, is one of the best of the white-flowered kinds, its scent somewhat resembling that of the magnolia. Oe. speciosa (white to rose), Oe. odorata (yellow), Oe. fruticosa (yellow), Oe. macrocarpa (yellow), Oe. biennis grandiflora (yellow), and Oe. triloba (yellow) are but a few names. Some of the evening primroses remain more or less open in the daytime, in which case they are usually visited by bees as well as by their guests of the night.
The catchflies are a family of night-bloomers, and their relative, the Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), resembles them in this respect, for its large rosy flowers open and become fragrant much after the manner of those of Silene nutans. The common pinks, too, which are allied plants, yield increased fragrance during the hours between sunset and sunrise, and are then frequently visited by moths.
The petunias are not often capable of being grown as hardy perennials in English gardens, but are easily grown as half-hardy annuals. They lend much beauty and fragrance to the night-garden, the white P. nyctanigiflora being especially good. All the scented pelargoniums are delightful, the night-scented P. triste and P. atrum being as good as any. The hardy terrestrial orchids, Habenaria bifolia and H. chlorantha, which yield their spicy fragrance at night, are easily grown in the bog garden, or indeed in any damp shady place if plenty of leaf-mould be mixed with the soil.
Although usually to be seen only under glass, it would be impossible to dismiss the subject of night blooming plants without referring to the ephemeral blossoms of the night-flowering cactuses, Cereus grandiflora—with its vanilla scented brown and yellow flowers, often measuring a foot across—and C. nycticalus, known as the Queen of the Night. The flowers of these plants open at about nine o'clock and begin to wither some six hours later.
One might go on adding to the list, but, even from the few plants here enumerated, it will be seen that the night gardener has a considerable field in which to work; whilst to those who share Baudelaire's love of scents, the realm of night-blooming flowers should be a very Paradise.
"Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants,