Garden style
The White Garden: A Moonlight Border That Glows at Dusk
A border that glows after sunset. White flowers, silver foliage, and evening scent, layered to carry every season.
A white garden is one of the most atmospheric things you can plant. In daylight it reads as cool and elegant, but at dusk, when other colors drain away, the white flowers and pale foliage hold the last of the light and seem to glow. That is the whole idea behind a moonlight border, and it is why the most famous garden room in the world, the White Garden at Sissinghurst, is at its most magical at twilight.
The craft of it is to think in layers and seasons, and to let foliage carry as much as the flowers. Browse the full set of white-blooming plants to build your own, and use the bloom calendar on each to keep something pale and luminous open from late winter to fall.
Anchor the border with white shrubs and roses
Start with the structure: a few shrubs and a rose give the border its bones, height, and several of its best scents. These carry the planting when the perennials are between flushes.
Rosa 'Korbin'
Clusters of pure white that never stop from late spring to frost, the definitive white-garden rose.
Hydrangea arborescens
Huge rounded heads of white that almost seem to glow at dusk, the classic Annabelle look for light shade.
Syringa vulgaris 'Madame Lemoine'
Double, pure-white, powerfully fragrant lilac, one of the great scents of late spring.
Philadelphus 'Belle Etoile'
Single white flowers with an orange-blossom perfume that carries right across the garden in early summer.
Viburnum carlesii
Rounded heads that open white from pink buds, with an intense, carrying clove scent.
White perennials for the summer border
These do the heavy lifting through summer. Mix flower shapes, daisies, spires, and big blowsy blooms, so the all-white scheme stays interesting rather than flat.
Paeonia 'Festiva Maxima'
Enormous, ruffled, fragrant white blooms flecked with crimson, on a plant that can outlive the gardener.
Leucanthemum × superbum 'Becky'
Crisp white daisies on strong stems that never flop, flowering for months on end.
Phlox paniculata 'David'
Tall heads of fragrant pure white in high summer, and famously resistant to mildew.
Echinacea purpurea 'White Swan'
White coneflowers with golden centers that feed pollinators all summer, then seed heads for the birds.
Salvia × sylvestris 'Schneehügel'
Clean white spikes that start early and rebloom when sheared, a tidy filler near the front.
Spring whites to open the year
Plant these in autumn and the border starts glowing as early as late winter, long before the summer plants wake up.
Galanthus
The first white of the year in most gardens, nodding bells through the last of the frost, with only the Christmas rose opening earlier.
Helleborus niger
Pure white cups in the depths of winter on an evergreen, shade-loving plant.
Narcissus 'Mount Hood'
A tall, elegant daffodil that opens soft cream and matures to pure white.
Tulipa 'White Triumphator'
Lily-flowered tulips with pointed, reflexed petals in clean white, pure elegance on a stem.
Allium stipitatum 'Mount Everest'
Big white drumstick spheres on tall stems that bridge spring into early summer.
White for the shade
Shade is where a white scheme really earns its keep, because pale flowers and variegated leaves light up the dim corners where colors would simply disappear.
Astilbe × arendsii 'Brautschleier'
Arching, feathery white plumes that light up a damp, shady spot in early summer.
Digitalis purpurea 'Camelot White'
Tall white spires of freckled bells for the back of a shaded border.
Lamprocapnos spectabilis 'Alba'
Arching stems hung with white heart-shaped lockets, perfect in cool shade.
Hosta 'Francee'
Heart-shaped leaves edged in crisp white that brighten dark corners all season long.
Convallaria majalis
Tiny, intensely fragrant white bells that carpet deep shade, one of the sweetest scents there is.
The moonlight touch: flowers that shine after dark
The signature of a true moonlight garden is a handful of plants that come into their own at night, opening late or turning fragrant as the light fades. Plant them where you sit on a summer evening.
Ipomoea alba
A climber whose huge white trumpets unfurl at dusk and pour out a heady evening scent.
Nicotiana
Star-shaped white flowers that turn powerfully fragrant in the cool of the evening.
Lobularia 'Snow Princess'
A long ribbon of tiny white flowers with a honey scent, flowering nonstop until frost.
Pair white with silver and green
White only reads as luminous when it has something to contrast against. Weave in silver-leaved plants like lamb's ear and artemisia, and leave plenty of green foliage between the flowers, so the whites look crisp and bright rather than washed out.
What is a white garden?
It is a border or garden room planted almost entirely in white flowers and silver or green foliage. Because pale colors catch the evening light, a white garden glows at dusk and even under moonlight, which is why it is often called a moonlight garden.
What are the best plants for a white garden?
Layer white roses, hydrangeas, and fragrant shrubs for structure, then peonies, phlox, and shasta daisies for summer, snowdrops and white daffodils for spring, and astilbe, foxglove, and white-edged hostas for shade.
How do I stop a white garden looking washed out?
Give it contrast. Lean on silver and green foliage, vary the flower shapes and heights, and deadhead promptly, since a browning white flower shows far more than a fading colored one.
Design a garden with these plants
Open BloomsEye Studio with this guide's plants ready to drop onto a plan, then watch the whole bed bloom across the year.