Night time is a truly magical time during our Southwestern summers. As the blazing sun sinks below the horizon and the air begins to cool off, it is pleasant to get outside and breathe the night air, and really enjoy your garden.

Moon Garden

In a previous post, I introduced the topic of a “Moon Garden,” listing a number of plants with flowers that attract the night-flying Southwest pollinators.    While flowers are nice, a moon garden need not have flowers to be attractive.    There are a number of plants with silvery foliage that look lovely in the moonlight.    Here are some low-water plants that glow in the moonlight.

Silver Foliage

Aloysia

Aloysia are nice, and can be part of your edible landscape if you plant the variety known as oreganillo (Aloysia wrightii), but aloysias don’t take temperatures much below 20F.    Since many of my readers are in places that get cooler, let’s look at some other silvery plants.

Poliomintha

There are nine species of poliomentha, but for the moon garden you want the most silvery – Poliomintha maderensis.    From the canyons of the Sierra Madre mountains, poliomintha is a lovely and fragrant treasure for your yard.    Why plant the autumn sage when you can have this pretty native that uses less water and attracts hummingbirds just as well?

Incidentally, poliomintha has edible flowers, and can be used in a refreshing herbal tea.

Woolly Butterfly Bush

Ignore those East Coast yammerings about “invasive” butterfly bush – this Southwest native butterfly bush in not invasive at all.    Woolly butterfly bush (Buddleja marrubifolia) is from the Chihuahuan Desert. 

The best part is this species tolerates cold and drought far better than the often planted Texas ranger (Leucophyllum).    If you are allergic to bees – consider this shrub that and looks (IMHO) just as pretty as a Texas ranger in the landscape but brings in butterflies sip it’s nectar.

Cordia

Two species of Cordia have silvery foliage.    Texas olive (Cordia boissieri) grows into a small tree with large fuzzy leaves. Meanwhile, the little leaf cordia (Cordia parvifolia) is a large shrub with small fuzzy leaves.

In addition to silvery leaves, both bloom with charming white flowers. Both species are not very cold tolerant, and thus are for the Low and Middle Desert zones only.  Incidentally, the Texas olive fruits are edible when cured in brine like European olives.

Plant Nerd Note

Cordia is not to be confused with Acourtia. Easy enough to see the difference when reading – but I once confused a group of plant nerds who mis-heard “… plant a Cordia, it’s a nice shrub.”

Meanwhile, Acourtia is a scruffy little perennial plant related to dandelions and sunflowers. Scruffy does not mean it isn’t pretty, just that it has very undisciplined, untidy growth habit and thus is not found in the nursery trade. I did collect specimens of Acourtia in Mexico in 1990.

Silvery Sage

Most silvery and well known perhaps is the now threatened white sage, Salvia apina. White sage is a fragrant evergreen shrub native to Southern California and Baja California. Distinctive silvery-white leaves and clusters of white flowers make it a charming low shrub.

In recent years people have been ripping it out by its roots to bundle and sell for smudging, and it is now threatened to endangered in some of it’s previous growing areas. If you can find some grown from seed in a local nursery, great, otherwise there are some nice alternatives like the next plant, called “silver sage.”

Notes on sages. On this site, I wrote about growing sages. On Savor the Southwest, I discussed the fact that “Not All Sage Is.”

Artemisia

Silvery foliage abounds in this genus of over 500 species of herbs. You want the New World native Artemisia from the Southwest. Try to buy your artemisia, also called western sage or silver sage from a nursery specializing in native plants. There are a number of “silver sage” that are native to Canada and are often sold in big box nurseries. Not to mention species from Europe!

The scientific names are rather mixed up at this point because Artemisia occur from in Europe and Asia, as well as from Guatemala northwards into Canada. Here is the problem. If you buy Artemisia ludoviciana from a big box store, you will probably get the one that grows really well in Canada. This is the cultivated ‘Powis Castle’ artemisia, popular across North America. Or maybe the European artemisia used to make absinthe (Artemisia abisinthium).    Arizona wormwood (Artemisia mexicana) is known by several common names, including silver wormwood and western mugwort.  If you like plants that don’t just look pretty, I wrote about foraging and using the Arizona wormwood to make a tasty cordial on Savor the Southwest.

Botany Nerd Shares – Artemisia Species

To make it hard for you to get the right plant, the gene jockeys in the labs have lumped 7 very distinct species of western artemisia into a single species. Those of us who grow plants know that they may cross at the edges of their areas, but the one from Canada will not survive in the Southwest, have different leaf and growing characteristics, and are not truly the same species. Close siblings maybe.

Try to buy the plants that grow best in the place where you live.

Artemisia albula is found in the deserts from California and Colorado to Chihuahua, Sonora, Baja California.

Meanwhile Artemisia lindleyana is found in the deserts of Chihuahua, Sonora, and Arizona.

Artemisia mexicana, prefers sandy soils in Mexico as far south as Puebla, and in the United States as far north as Colorado.

Artemisia redolens, a Chihuahuan Desert native found in Durango, Chihuahua, eastern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Avoid Artemisia candicans found in the Rocky Mountains and Cascade Range from Alberta, British Columbia to northern California.

Also avoid Artemisia incompta, found at elevation from Alberta, British Columbia, and occasionally in the Western Sky Islands into Mexico. Unless you live atop a Sky Island, then plant this cold loving species.

Enjoy

If you are into baroque art, don’t miss that of Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi. She was an Italian baroque painter.

I have grown several different artemisias, and love gently stroking the softly furry leaves of the ‘Powis Castle.’    These artemisia herbs are strongly flavored so the rabbits leave them alone, but I’m not sure about the javelina. Come to think, any artemisia could be part of your edible landscape too! How to use artemisia to make your own absinthe on Savor the Southwest.

Buy Local

Most of these native plants are not in big box nurseries.    You will have to seek out those hidden nursery gems in your area.  Gems like High Country Growers, Moosa Creek, or maybe your state native plant society.  There are a few  wholesale growers like Mountain States Wholesale Nursery that grow and truck plants to local nurseries across our region. 

Your Help

I am trying to rebuild my “Local Nurseries” page.  If you know of a good local nursery for native plants where you live, please tell me!

Turn Off the Phone. Kill the Bright Lights.

The last thing you need in your moon garden is mood-killing “Stalig-17” lights shining in your eyes from the eaves of the house.    Even a yellow porch light can be overly bright.    A few low-level path lights shining downward are fine.    A lantern or two with those battery operated tea lights is also lovely.

Yes – when you first step outside from your brightly lit home it will seem dim, but give your eyes a few minutes to adjust. The starlight    shimmer of silvery leaves can be quite bright given time.

Listen to The Night

Although a moon garden is often conceived as a summer garden, don’t neglect plants that can be enjoyed in other seasons. Plants with interesting natural shapes like the soap-tree yucca, or perhaps a charming native palm – also good in poolscaping.

Night-bloomers such as moonflowers, four-o’clocks, and angels’ trumpets, add their own unique qualities to the garden; their fragrances attract night pollinators. Sound is another element to consider. At sunset, when temperatures cool and breezes whip up, there’s nothing quite like the swishing foliage of ornamental grasses, bamboos, and even pine trees as they sway gently in the night breezes.

Sit and Enjoy

One of the most important components of a moon garden is a place to sit and take in the view. You can put a chair in the middle of the garden or place a bench along the perimeter. There is no right or wrong spot; just make sure it’s comfortable. We discovered that a place to set drinks and snacks next to the seating is a nice addition.

Comfort is necessary! No matter how good that wrought-iron love seat looks, it won’t get very much use without cushions to soften the seating. Do have someplace to store the cushions when you go back inside. Unfortunately, there are many small furry creatures that will remove fabric and stuffing from cushions to line their burrows or nests.

Just Start!

What to do first?  Just take that first step.  You may not get it just right the first time around. Be gentle on yourself. You didn’t learn to walk the first time you tried!

A landscape is one and done, and whip those poor plants into a static unchanging shape with some cold hard steel. Gardening is creating a living and changing piece of art that grows and you grow and changes with the seasons.  Start some magic in your yard – your garden at night.

More Gardening Tips in this Book

The Month By Month Guide offers tips for all of your landscape (yes even vines) in every month of the year.  I have a few copies left and am offering them to you – my loyal readers. When you buy from me you get a signed copy!

From the review:

“A great reference book is key to successful gardening in the region where you live. Arizona, Nevada & New Mexico Month-by-Month Gardening takes the guesswork out of gardening for anyone residing in the Southwest. With this book, you’ll know what to do each month to enjoy a thriving garden all year, from January to December. Chronologically organized, this guide is full of critical gardening when-to and how-to advice, along with illustrated step-by-step instructions.”

“The book’s author is Jacqueline Soule, a Tucson-based gardening expert. She knows this arid region inside and out, and she’s written several articles and books packed with her gardening advice. Arizona, Nevada & New Mexico Month-by-Month Gardening showcases Soule’s expertise in one easy-to-read guide.”

Profits from the sale of this book go to the Horticulture Therapy non-profit Tierra del Sol Institute.   Recent price increase, due to the US Postal Service price increase in July 2024.  It is now $30.

I’m Here to Help

Be sure to ask questions if you have them! I do all this writing and blogging and posting on social media so that you will succeed with your garden goals!

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