How to Grow Zaluzianskya capensis, the Night Phlox

I can remember the first time I read about Zaluziantkya – trying to pronounce it in my head before daring to speak it out loud. It’s one of those words that once you master pronouncing it, you just love to say it over and over again like a two year old. At the very least, you will impress your friends. Za-loo-zee-ann-ski-ya.

While Zaluzianskya may sound like a Polish polka, it does have a connection to Poland as the genus was named in honor of the a Polish botanist Adam Zaluziansky von Zalusian in the late 1500s, so I suppose the name potentially could have been even more of a tongue twister. Even though it isnt all that common, the plant does has a long history as a container plant in Europe. The genus is larger than one may think, with more than 50 species all native to South Africa, but only three species are generally grown ornamentally and one, Z. capensis being the favored one.

Why grow this small flower with a long name? One reason only – fragrance. It’s not going to look like much during the day as the small, 1/2 wide pure white flowers will close into maroon, rounded buds while in full sun, but everything changed once evening arrived. Like most night-blooming plants, these tiny white star-like flowers are pollinated by nocturnal insects or moths. Zaluzianskya transforms a garden at sunset when it emits a super-sweet fragrance not unlike vanilla extract. And while it is hardly as intense as some garden writers make it out to be (for example, I’ve never found it strong enough to ‘waft across a garden’ ) it’s more like that first scent of a can of play-doh.

Seed of only one species is commonly found, and at that, only in good seed catalogs. Z. capensis does have a named cultivar, named ‘Midnight Candy’ but a couple