Moon Garden, and Plants Like Candytuft to Fill It

Moon garden. New Age? Calling for crystals and sage? If you yourself are a little Boho and New Age, then, sure, it can be. But a moon garden can also be classic and traditional, or if you prefer, contemporary and clean in its design. In fact, it can take on virtually any style you like. A moon garden is simply a garden that uses plants that show well in the moonlight: White foliage and white flowering plants that catch the light of the moon and seem to glow in it make up the moon garden, and make the broader garden/yard seem quite magical.

White Tulips are wonderful flowering bulbs for a moon garden. Their blooming period is short-lived, but when their sizable cupped flowers become illuminated at night, the gardener knows they were truly worth planting. To time things well, so that each part of spring and summer brings something new, having some white Irises in your moon garden is also nice. And as a backdrop, any of the Hostas with white stripes show well.

Sweet Woodruff is one of my favorite white-flowering plants. Its blooms are so dainty and widely spread atop its foliage that, in the moonlight, its effect is one of a dusting of snow or just a sprinkling of powdered sugar. And as contrast, white Creeping Phlox provides the full white carpet… total swaths of white, hugging the ground and draping over rocks. But for puffy clouds of glowing white, there is Iberis sempervirens, or Candytuft. 

Perhaps it is the name Candytuft that causes me to think this, but it is sort of a confection of a plant. Think of a “sugary cloud” that is made up of intricate white flowers, and you will be thinking of Candytuft, named not for “candy” but for its geographic origin of Candia, now Crete. It is a woody subshrub which can be found in pinks and purples, but cultivars such as Candytuft ‘Whiteout’ have super white (with just a kiss of creamy yellow/antique white)—and easy to illuminate—flowers. Candytuft shows like little else in the moonlight, and in the daytime, its flowers look almost like small white crocheted circles or fancy pincushions that cover a dark emerald base.

Like most of the other moon garden plant options mentioned here, Candytuft will not flower throughout the full summer. Its blooms appear in spring and early summer, and then the “moon gardener” will need to have something else in store to capture the celestial light. White Panicle Hydrangeas? Shasta Daisies? (There are lots of options.) But because Candytuft is drought tolerant, appreciated by pollinators in the daytime, and very easy on the eyes, it is a bit of a moon garden must-have.

With the many garden color palettes, it is sometimes difficult for gardeners to restrict themselves to plants of all one color. But it is an exercise in being thoughtful and judicious, and it achieves results that are incredibly worthwhile. White flowers such as Candytuft show up beautifully in daytime against a sea of spring and summer greenery. But seeing them at night when they are clustered together, purposefully planted in a moon garden, is really something… something you might want to see.