Dinner outdoors is one of the compensations of our hot climate. The main thing you need to make it happen is protection from wind. In this country rain isn’t a worry, let’s face it, and in a crisis there’s nothing wrong with a beach brolly.
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A windbreak in the form of a high wall or a hedge, though, is vital, as no-one enjoys eating in a howling southerly, however cool.
More importantly, you need shelter to enjoy night-scented plants, the icing on the cake of outdoor dining.
Flowers smelling only faintly during the day come into their own on a still evening, especially those that attract nocturnal pollinators.
My annual tobacco (Nicotiana sylvestris) is almost aroma-free in the garden in daytime, but pours out its scent in our lattice-walled courtyard after dark.
Shelter can be the difference between death and survival for plants on the frosty highlands and inlands.
Also, a slightly tender shrub might survive but refuse to flower in the open, yet will perform in a protected corner.
Murraya (M. paniculata) is heaven on the coast right now, smothered in small, creamy, waxy flowers that waft their orange blossom aroma for metres around.
It has dark green, glossy, pinnate leaves, blooms for many weeks and produces red and orange berries in autumn.
Flowers smelling only faintly during the day come into their own on a still evening, especially those that attract nocturnal pollinators
Although it flowers in the sub-tropics as far south as Wollongong, I can’t imagine it surviving a Central Tablelands winter.
However I’ve bought a pot for our garden room (no point struggling with cuttings if I’m destined to lose them after they’ve struck) and I’ll be interested to see how it travels. All gardeners are eternal optimists, we need to be.
Common or Poet’s Jasmine (J. officinale) is a summer classic for gorgeous evening scent and this one is perfectly hardy.
A sprawling shrub, it has pinnate leaves and starry white flowers throughout summer.
Bulbs are ideal for courtyard pots and several Amaryllis are night scented. Murray Darling Lily (Crinum flaccidum) is hardy in my garden but is better in a pot where I can water it in summer.
It has knee high, strappy leaves and large, white, trumpet-shaped flowers, heavily fragrant.
Coastal Swamp Lily (Crinum pedunculatum) is much taller (up to 2 metres) with heads of tightly packed white flowers, sweetly scented, followed by woody seed capsules.
Last April in Sri Lanka I came across the most desirable Amaryllis of all, Hymenocallis ‘Cayman Giant’ kindly identified for me by Brisbane landscape architect Arno King who grows numerous Hymenocallis species, partly for their evening scent in summer.
‘Cayman Giant’ is a true topical, but good news is there’s a hardy version, Hymenocallis narcissiflora, growing in stony fields on the Peruvian Andes at 3,000m elevation. Definitely worth a try.
There’s no need to gag on the smell of insect repellent when eating outdoors, light a citronella candle instead.
Garden centres have them in tea lights, pretty glass tumblers, terracotta bowls and even galvanised buckets, and they burn for hours.
