Since the days are getting shorter and the nights longer, there is a way to brighten up your garden for nighttime viewing. One way is to add some lighting to your garden.
Lighting will help to reflect the colors in your garden. I would suggest using flickering lanterns, dim bulbs or even a string of Christmas lights would work. You can also spotlight a particular feature in your garden. Stores have a wide variety of solar lights that are attractive and are energy efficient. I would recommend planting night blooming, pale colored flowers to reflect light from the setting sun and rising moon[1].
When planting consider using a variety of white flowers such as lilacs, hydrangeas, rhodendrons or impatien. Some night flowering plants such as evening primrose, moonflower, angle's trumpet, and flowering tobacco add fragrances. For contrast plants with bright patterns on their foliage or those with silver leaves present a glowing silhouette.
Plants with bright patterns on foliage such as:
o Variegated cannas - (Canna) are exotic pond plants with variegated foliageand colorful striped bright leaves.- Zones 9-12
o Hosta - (Hosta fortunei 'albo-marginata') have white margins around large gray green leaves that present a glowing silhouette in the moonlight - Zones 6-10
o Dusty Miller - (Centaurea cineraria) – is grown primarily for its attractive silver-gray foliage rather than its yellow flowers. - Zones 7-10
o Licorice Plant - (Helichrysum petiolare 'Variegatum') these silvery, gray-green or chartreuse plants can be used as fillers and spillers in the garden. - Zones 9-10
- Plants with silver leaves
o Silver artemesia - (Artemesia schmidtiana) are used for their silvery-green foliage and for their aromatic, culinary, and medicinal properties- Zones 3-9
o Silver sage - (Salvia argentea) is used for their striking white leaves- Zone 6-9
[1] http://www.weekendgardener.net/landscaping-ideas/moonlight-080708.htm