In the daytime, fiery poppies, indigo delphiniums and lime-green zinnias turn the Penobscot County Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden in Stillwater into a carnival of color. Most people who visit while the sun is high in the sky hardly notice the little plot at the front of the garden, filled with pale foliage and flowers, many of which are closed like eyelids squinting to block out the sun.

But when the sun starts to set, the day-bright colors fade to gray and the “moon garden” takes center stage.

“With a white garden or a moon garden … when the light starts to wane, some of these flowers will actually look like they’re glowing,” Claudia Tucci of Old Town, the garden’s creator, said while mulching paths through the flowers.

The show starts at dusk, as tiny evening-scented stock blossoms begin to release their heady fragrance. It doesn’t look like much, but the scent is divine.

“It’s just a cute little blossom,” Tucci said, “but the fragrance is so spicy.”

The same can be said for the ‘Tina James’ evening primrose, which releases a “lemony-nut-megy” aroma. But that’s not the only reason this tall, spiky plant attracts visitors to the garden. Around 8:30 p.m., its buds begin to unfurl, quickly enough that you can actually watch it bloom.

“It’s a very unlovely plant for daytime … but when they open, it’s a show, I’m telling you, it’s a show,” Tucci said.

And after they open, deep into the night, the flowers look like big moths, hovering in the air. A sprinkle of white blooms on a spike of Gooseneck loosestrife resembles a tiny comet’s tail in the dark. And the bursts of flowers on the Euphorbia marginata are like a fireworks show in miniature.

“It’s another real showstopper for this garden,” Tucci said.

When a relative pulled Tucci “almost kicking and screaming” into the Master Gardener program eight years ago, she and a handful of other gardeners were trying to decide what to do with the 2-year-old demonstration garden.

“What popped into my head was the moon garden,” Tucci said. “This became my project and I’ve been here ever since.”

Tucci’s gardening style was influenced by her mother, and many of the plants she has chosen for the moon garden remind her of her childhood in Portland.

“My mother has always loved fragrance,” Tucci said.

Tucci started with all annuals, which gave her pure, bright whites, but it became too much work, and it took them all summer to reach the size she wanted. So she gradually worked in perennials, and now the garden is a mixture of both.

“With all annuals, it looks fabulous. You get more white in your garden, but you’re waiting until August for it,” Tucci said. “The other way is easy because gardening is just plain work. It’s wonderful work, but it’s work.”

With more than 800 square feet and 121 different plant varieties to tend, Tucci likes to keep work to a minimum. She chooses long-flowering perennials or repeat bloomers to get as many flowers as she can in the garden. And if things get a little leggy or a little weedy, it doesn’t matter.

“You stand here now and the garden is kind of blah,” Tucci said on a recent afternoon. “The other thing about this kind of garden is it can have all kinds of blemishes.”

As the light starts to fade, the flaws fade as well. And as darkness sets in and the moths start to dance from flower to flower, a magical aura seems to descend on the garden.

“I go because it’s quiet and peaceful, and at night, it has an almost sacred feeling,” said Monique Gibouleau of Old Town, a longtime devotee of the garden.

“If the night is bright then you can see your shadow and the flowers are just brilliant; they reflect the moonlight – they’re luminous,” she said. “You almost don’t think they’re real. They’re almost like phantoms glowing in the night. You have to just touch them.”

The moon garden is located at the Penobscot County Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden in Stillwater. To get there, take Exit 51 off I-95 and head toward Old Town. At the intersection of Stillwater Avenue and Bennoch Road (Route 16) take a left. Travel about 21/2 miles. The garden will be on your right.