VOA健康报道2023--Plants, Flowers to Enjoy by Moonlight

Plants, Flowers to Enjoy by Moonlight

Gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere are starting to plan their summer gardens. Most are thinking about how their plants and flowers will look in the bright sunshine in the coming summer.

But when the summer sun goes down in the evening, and you are sitting outside at home, you may not be able to see many flowers in the yard without artificial lighting¹.

With some planning, you can plant a "moon garden." That is one you can enjoy by the light of the moon.

Leaves and flowers both show well in moonlight

Jessica Damiano writes about gardening for The Associated Press. She says plants with silver or multi-colored leaves, white or light-colored flowers, or flowers that open only at night are good choices for a moon garden. Another way to enjoy plants in the evening is to choose ones with a pleasing smell. Plant them along a walkway or near a seating area outdoors, where you can enjoy them up close, or within view of a window.

For a moon garden, Damiano suggests planting these kinds of light-colored, moon-reflecting blooms: the moonflower (of course!), as well as Shasta daisy, four o'clock, sweet alyssum, yarrow, snow-in-summer, evening primrose², petunias³, New Guinea impatiens and geranium.

Insects that visit flowers at night to collect pollen⁴, such as the sphinx moth⁵, love them, too.

Make it last longer

You can begin the garden early with early bloomers, like lily of the valley, daffodil and azalea. Make the season last longer into the autumn with late bloomers like chrysanthemum⁶ and autumn clematis.

Plants with unusual or multi-colored leaves include spotted⁷ dead nettle⁸, Japanese painted fern, Jack⁹ Frost Siberian bugloss, hostas, silver lamb's ears, dusty miller¹⁰, Russian sage¹¹, silver mound¹² wormwood and some euonymus varieties.

All of these plants can be seen after sundown and especially seem to shine under a full moon.

Good smells make a pleasant garden

If you want good smells to fill your yard in the evening, plant mock orange gardenia¹³, lilac, summersweet, and jasmine. In very warm places, try planting ylang-ylang and frangipani to fill your evenings with pleasure.

Remember that like a painting, a garden needs something behind the attention-getting objects in front. Include a backdrop of woody plants like the sweet-smelling Korean spice viburnum, or white-blooming hydrangeas.

Trees like paper birch white or silver poplar, acacia and eucalyptus¹⁴ light up the night. Find out about those that work best in your climate by talking with other gardeners or a local expert.

Group your plants together

For the best visual effect, plant in groups of three, five or seven, of the same kind of plant. That is a good gardening method in general because it avoids creating a disorganized mixture of plants and flowers. But it is more important in a moon garden. You do not want your single plants to get lost in the dark.

There is one more thing to increase how much you can see your moon garden -– add some small lights that face the plants. Their light will increase the appeal of your moon garden. Think about using other light-colored design elements, as well, such as fencing, plant supports, stones, water features and glass balls.

Words in This Story

gardener – n. a person who works with plants as a hobby or for payment at a home

reflect – v. (trans.) to bend or throw back (light, heat, or sound)

bloom – n. the flower on a plant or v. to produce a flower

pollen – n. a fine powder produced by flowers

multi- – prefix¹⁵ used to form adjectives indicating that something consists of many things of a particular kind

backdrop – n. the background to any scene or situation

visual – adj. of, relating to, done by, or used in seeing

1 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

2 primrose   

n.樱草，最佳部分，

参考例句：

• She is in the primrose of her life.她正处在她一生的最盛期。
• The primrose is set off by its nest of green.一窝绿叶衬托着一朵樱草花。

3 petunias   

n.矮牵牛（花）( petunia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The petunias were already wilting in the hot sun. 在烈日下矮牵牛花已经开始枯萎了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. 那里有我的前廊我的枕头，我漂亮的紫色矮牵牛。 来自互联网

4 pollen   

n.[植]花粉

参考例句：

• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。

5 moth   

n.蛾，蛀虫

参考例句：

• A moth was fluttering round the lamp.有一只蛾子扑打着翅膀绕着灯飞。
• The sweater is moth-eaten.毛衣让蛀虫咬坏了。

6 chrysanthemum   

n.菊，菊花

参考例句：

• Each mourner wore a black armband and a white paper chrysanthemum.每个吊唁的人都佩带着黑纱和一朵白纸菊花。
• There are many species of chrysanthemum.菊花品种很多。

7 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

8 nettle   

n.荨麻；v.烦忧，激恼

参考例句：

• We need a government that will grasp the nettle.我们需要一个敢于大刀阔斧地处理问题的政府。
• She mightn't be inhaled as a rose,but she might be grasped as a nettle.她不是一朵香气扑鼻的玫瑰花，但至少是可以握在手里的荨麻。

9 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

10 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

11 sage   

n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的

参考例句：

• I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
• The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。

12 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

13 gardenia   

n.栀子花

参考例句：

• On muggy summer night,Gardenia brought about memories in the South.闷热的夏夜，栀子花带来关于南方的回忆。
• A gardenia stands for pure,noble.栀子花是纯洁高尚的象征。

14 eucalyptus   

n.桉树，桉属植物

参考例句：

• Eucalyptus oil is good for easing muscular aches and pains.桉树油可以很好地缓解肌肉的疼痛。
• The birds rustled in the eucalyptus trees.鸟在桉树弄出沙沙的响声。

15 prefix   

n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面

参考例句：

• We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
• In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。