8 Backyard Plants That Smell Better At Night

Tip #7: Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana alata)

If you want to add elegant vertical interest to your night-blooming garden, the tall, heritage varieties of flowering tobacco provide an unbeatable combination of height and intoxicating perfume.

Make sure you seek out the classic species, Nicotiana alata, rather than the modern, dwarf hybrids sold at many garden centers; while the modern hybrids look tidy, breeders have unfortunately hybridized the wonderful fragrance right out of them.

The classic, old-fashioned varieties feature tall, branching stalks that reach three to four feet in height, topped with nodding, star-shaped white blossoms that release a heady, jasmine-like scent as soon as the sun goes down.

Flowering tobacco serves as a tough, reliable annual that adds a wild, cottage-garden aesthetic to the back of your flower beds. The plant features large, slightly fuzzy basal leaves and sticky stems that naturally trap bothersome gnats.

You can easily start them from seed indoors six weeks before your last frost, pressing the microscopic seeds gently into the soil surface without burying them. Once transplanted into the backyard, they require moderate watering and a location that receives either full sun or dappled shade.

As an added bonus, leaving a few spent flower stalks at the end of the season allows the plant to drop its tiny seeds, rewarding you with dozens of free volunteer seedlings the following spring.