“It is better to be a young June bug than an old bird of paradise.” Mark Twain. “I realized June had never been just a month.” Sanover Khan. “And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days.” James Russell Lowell. “In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different.” John Steinbeck. “June suns, you cannot store them.” A.E. Housman. “Summer brings sunshine, warm and flowering.” Lailah Gifty Akita. “It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” Maud Hart Lovelace. “June is the time for being in the world in new ways, for throwing off the cold and dark spots of life.” Joan D. Chittister.

A moon, or nighttime garden, is one that can be enjoyed after the sun sets. After a long day at work (or in the garden) nighttime is a great time to sit back and enjoy your garden. White or light-colored flowers will stand out so you and your guests can see and relish the beauty.

Below are a few AAS (All America Selections) Winners that will add beauty to your moon garden.

Sweet Daisy™ Birdy Leucanthemum is a beautiful perennial with robust, long-lasting blooms and carefree longevity. In the AAS Trials, it demonstrated excellent cold and heat tolerance and maintained a tidy, sturdy habit over the three-year trial. The cheery flowers are large and pure white in color, appearing earlier in the season than the comparison varieties. The 5″ reflexed daisy blooms feature small feathery petals around golden yellow button centers. Leucanthemums, also known as Shasta Daisies, provide food and habitat for many kinds of pollinators.

White osteospermums are not unique but a clear white osteo with a yellow center is a novelty, plus, it’s easily grown from seed. Akila® Daisy White is a tidy, uniform plant with open flowers that produces non-stop blooms all summer long. Even southern judges praised Akila’s ability to keep blooming in the heat and they also showed more drought tolerance than other osteos. Akila is also the recipient of the Fleuroselect Gold Medal award for performance in European trials.

Asti White blooms are pure white with blue centers. The large blooms, 2 to 2-1/2 inches across, are borne on stems that gracefully wave in the wind. The thick fleshy leaves indicate its drought tolerance, which makes this a preferred annual when grown under dry conditions. Asti White is the first white Osteospermum, or Cape Daisy, propagated from seed. The flowers will remain open under cloudy conditions, unlike other daisy flowers originating from South Africa. Gardeners have the choice of growing from seed or purchasing plants.

The hearty Mega Bloom vinca series has been bred to withstand heat and humidity without succumbing to disease. Polka Dot excels in that area plus sports huge showy flowers on full, vigorous plants that stay tidy and compact. The leaves of Mega Bloom Polka Dot stayed a healthy green all season resulting in large healthy plants all summer until frost. Each large bloom (3-4”) has attractive overlapping petals in snowy white with a bright pink eye.

Semi-double blossoms on this new, improved variety of gypsophila will make your garden sparkle! Not only are the flowers semi-double, but are also a bit larger in size and produce more flowers per plant, resulting in a fluffy white mound of beauty. Gypsy White Improved has better branching and a better growth habit than its predecessor, making it perfect for containers, small spaces and garden beds. A much longer bloom season and better heat tolerance than Gypsy Compact White will make this your new garden favorite.

A third color in the popular Summer Jewel™ series, white brings a much-needed color to compact salvias. This dwarf sized, compact plant has a prolific bloom count throughout the summer. As a bonus, the blooms appear almost two weeks earlier than other white salvias used as comparisons. Judges noted how the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds loved the larger flowers, making it perfect for a pollinator garden. Because of the compactness and number of flowers, Summer Jewel™ White is great for the landscape as well as containers.

Sparkle White gaura will bring a touch of airy elegance to the garden with its long slender stems sporting a large number of dainty white flowers tinged with a pink blush. This beauty is perfect mass planted in sun-drenched landscape beds, in groupings with other perennials or in larger containers. Home gardeners will appreciate that this season-long bloomer also has excellent heat tolerance and a more uniform flowering habit than other seed gauras.

Stunning white flowers with rose stripes are a new bicolor for zinnias. Superior disease resistance to leaf spot and mildew result in long-lasting plants where other zinnias have failed. Enjoy this easy growing heat and drought tolerant zinnia in your sunny garden or container. Mature plants reaching 12 to 14 inches tall abound with large colorful 2.5-inch blooms all season long with minimum care.

They may not be or have white flowers but still, a few white pumpkins decorating your fall patio? Perfect! Our judges loved the nice, eye-appealing ghostly white coloration on the large, blemish-free round pumpkins.  Grown for their size, up to 50 pounds, and their clean white color, these hardy plants are known for their early fruit development and vigorous growth. Their stems are tough, hardy, disease-resistant, and unstoppable!

This fact sheet is provided as an education/inspirational service of All-America Selections (https://all-americaselections.org/aas-winner-moon-garden/).

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:30-31. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the Law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3. “[Bless the Lord] Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:5.