Flowers of the Evening

100 year old volume of 'Familiar Wild Flowers'

I discovered the beautiful phrase "flowers of the evening" in an antique botanical book I was gifted for my birthday called 'Familiar Wild Flowers', written by F. Edward Hulme. There is a handwritten message on the inside cover,

"Phyllis, from H.W. Primrose. With love on her birthday, 13 April 1923".

Scribed with the finesse typical of handwriting in the olden days, each letter an elegant swirl and decorative loop creating a bouquet of letters and a reminder of how penmanship as an art form has declined over the years!

The book contains a series of descriptive paragraphs and illustrations of 44 wild flowers, some native to these isles and some introduced. The phrase "flowers of the evening" was used to describe white campion which saves the full sweetness of its scent and the luminosity of its flowers until the evening hours.

"Our present subject, graceful as it is in itself, has an additional charm arising from the circumstances under which we ordinarily find it. While most plants expand their blossoms very freely in the life-giving rays of the morning sun; while others, as the little pimpernel, will not expand at all if its genial influence be withdrawn - some few, like the white campion, reserve their full sweetness for the closing hours of the day, expand their blossoms to the chill dews of the night and mingle their sweetness with the rich odours that float in the evening air in the woodland copse or the flower sprinkled hedgerow. The pure white of its blossoms, and their large size, tend to attract attention; and in the gathering darkness its stellate flowers stand out from the gloom and indistinct forms of the hedge bank like the starry host of heaven emerging one by one from the deepening twilight."

White campion in our flower field during a brief dry moment on a gloomy wet day with the shadows of the woodland looming behind.

What a paragraph! I love the idea of flowers shining through a night garden like stars. Since reading it, I have been thinking more about the daytime and nighttime as a series of seasons with chronological moments of enjoyment. There are so many layers in a garden and a richness experience to be had at different times of day. Flowers of the evening are something to look forward to like the other end of the day rituals such as dinner, slowing down, and enjoying our surroundings after work. I am adding the flowers of the evening to my list of favourite invisible emanations such as petrichor (scent after rain), freshly cut grass, chopped wood, and that unmistakable mingling of salt and seaweed as you near the sea. I especially enjoy the basis that the night-time will bring about a magic not experienced during the day, with all the elusive creatures such as bats, owls, moths, and hedgehogs emerging in the cover of darkness.

White campion is a creature of the night. I first came to notice it growing wild in the meadows and hedgerows around my house when I moved to here in 2021 and was surprised one midnight walk to find the hedgerow emanating a subtle, sweet and smoky scent with lingering notes almost reminiscent of a wood fire. I realised it was the scent of the white campion which had a series of white moths floating around the clump of flowers like small pieces of burning paper floating up into the air. I fell in love with its idiosyncratic shape and the bulbous veined "bladder" from which the flower protrudes with its love heart petals. We decided to grow white campion a few years ago, sowing a small patch in 2022 which has spread easily and happily in a raised bed in full sun, between bedfellows sanguisorba, japanese anemones, and towering gladioli. It's one of my favourites in the ground and when it finds its way into our arrangements.

Night scented flowers such as the white campion begin releasing their perfume at dusk in order to attract nocturnal pollinators such as moths. The luminous white flowers produce a clove-like scent in the evenings and the flowers are white to make them more visible in the dark. It is a really special experience to see them glow in the moonlight, lamps for anyone who has lost their way.

Flowers of the evening bring a special magic to the garden, within this liminal place lies a unique aura waiting to transport you into memory, into the moment. Other examples of flowers of the evening to add to your garden are the evening primrose, night scented stock, wisteria, jasmine, and honeysuckle. I have a large honeysuckle right outside my front door which sends a heady and nectarous vanilla up into my bedroom if I leave the window open; a very floral sleeping pill.

I hope I can urge you out into the garden at night to see what sights, sounds, and scents you can experience there. May you be led out into the cocoon of the dark on this pursuit of flowers of the evening, even the blandest of nights will hold the fairest of scenes.

Lauren x