The gardenchanges shifts.

Friday to Sunday · 06—29 NOV 2026 · 18:30–23:00

01 — The handover

Every evening at the North Gate, one crew clocks off and another clocks on.

AFTERBLOOM is an evening walk through The Night Garden, timed to that changeover. Over the first half-hour, your own eyes change shifts too.

Follow the night shift on foot

The Night Garden · Time card

No. 18:30

Clocking off

HoneybeesApis mellifera
Home before dark.
Off · dusk
Your cone cellsColour vision
Sharp and colourful, useless in the dark.
Off · 10 min

Clocking on

MoonflowerIpomoea alba
Opens at dusk, quickly enough to watch.
On · dusk
Ghost orchidDendrophylax lindenii
Leafless. Seems to float.
On · night
Luna mothActias luna
No mouth, one week, all business.
On · dark
Your rod cellsNight vision
About 30 minutes to full strength.
On · 30 min

02 — The walk

The night shift, on foot.

One loop, five stops, about an hour and a half. It starts in deliberate darkness.

01North GateArrival
02The Threshold WalkAbout 15 min
03The Bloom Room15–20 min
04The Shadow House15–20 min
05The Wing Gallery15–20 min

Illustrative plan of a fictional garden · Not to scale

An open black iron gate in an old brick wall covered in white moonflowers. A couple and a parent holding a child's hand walk through onto a pale gravel path lit at foot level.

01Stop 01 of 05 · Arrival

Through the North Gate.

Walk straight in, no queues or guides. One request: torches off, screens dimmed. The whole walk depends on your eyes adjusting.

A narrow gravel path winds through tall ferns and dark shrubs at night, edged with small white flowers. One person walks ahead into the dark.

02Stop 02 of 05 · About 15 min

Your eyes change shifts too.

In the dark, your colour-seeing cones hand over to rod cells: far more sensitive, slow to start. The first fifteen minutes of the trail are kept dim so the handover is well under way before the first encounter.

Almost nothing. The gravel edge and the palest petals.

03Stop 03 of 05 · 15–20 min

The Bloom Room.

A walled garden room at night whose three walls are covered in glowing white moonflowers. One visitor sits on a low bench, one leans in to a flower, another stands at the wall.

Moonflower bud, tightly furled in a white spiral above dark heart-shaped leaves. — Plate 03 · Unfurling

The same moonflower open: a wide white trumpet with lilac edges. — Plate 03 · Unfurling

The encounter

Moonflower Ipomoea alba

Buds twisted shut all afternoon loosen at dusk and open in minutes, quickly enough to watch from the bench. White, because their pollinators are hawkmoths working by scent and pale shapes.

Look for: The five creases that spiral the bud shut
Best window: 18:30 arrivals reach the room as buds begin to open

Inside a Victorian glasshouse at night: mossy branches hang through mist, carrying many white ghost orchids with long curling petals. A narrow beam of pale violet light falls on one orchid while a visitor looks up from the shadows.

04Stop 04 of 05 · 15–20 min

The Shadow House.

Almost completely dark. One slow beam of moonlight, and you see only what it finds.

Move across the glasshouse to steer the beam

Ghost orchid: a white flower whose lip trails into two long, curling tails, clinging to bark by grey-green roots, with no leaves. — Plate 04

The encounter

Ghost orchid Dendrophylax lindenii

No leaves at all: it hangs from bark by grey-green roots that do the photosynthesis, so in the dark the flower seems to float. Follow the lip, drawn out into two long curling tails.

Look for: The roots, not the flower. Find where it is actually attached

05Stop 05 of 05 · 15–20 min

The Wing Gallery.

A cotton sheet under an ultraviolet lamp, the same setup moth recorders use. Mild, still nights are busiest; the luna moth below is your guide, not a guarantee.

A white sheet stretched between two poles in a dark meadow, lit violet by a small ultraviolet lamp. Dozens of moths rest on it, including a pale green luna moth. A woman and a child stand close, the child pointing at the luna moth.

The encounter · Plate 05

Luna moth Actias luna

Luna moth, pale green, wings spread, with feathered antennae, an eyespot on each wing and two long curved tails.

Broad and comb-like, especially on males, which use them to pick up a female’s scent from far off.
Adult luna moths do not eat. They live on what they stored as caterpillars, for about a week.
A spot on each wing, thought to startle or misdirect a predator for the second that matters.
In flight the long tails twist. In experiments, bats often aimed at the tails instead of the body.

03 — Choose your shift

Friday to Sunday · 6–29 November 2026 · Last entry 20:30

Choose your shift.

Your arrival time decides which part of the handover you see. Every window covers the full loop.

Window 01
18:30
The changeover
Arrive with the last light.
- Reach the Bloom Room as the first moonflower buds unfurl
- The gentlest start, good for younger visitors
In 18:30 · Out about 20:00
Window 02
19:30
Full bloom
The whole night shift at work.
- Moonflowers open across all three walls of the Bloom Room
- The first moths settling on the sheet
In 19:30 · Out about 21:00
Window 03
20:30
Deep night
Full dark, the busiest sheet.
- The Wing Gallery sheet at its most active, if the night is mild
- Quieter paths, the last entry of the night
In 20:30 · Out about 22:00

Open nights · November 2026

Admission

Adult: $24
Under 16: $12
Under 5: Free

AUD, any night, any window.

Where

The Night Garden
North Gate

A fictional setting. No real venue is implied.

Bring · Leave

Bring Closed shoes and a layer for later
Leave Torches, flash and bright screens

Before you go.

Is it suitable for children?

Yes, with an adult. Under 16s are $12 and under 5s are free. The 18:30 window is the gentlest start.

What about access, prams and wheelchairs?

The concept route is step-free gravel with benches at every stop. These are design intentions for a fictional venue, not verified facilities.

What if it rains?

The Shadow House is under glass. Moths are scarce on wet or cold nights, so the Wing Gallery may be quiet.

Is this a real event?

No. AFTERBLOOM is a fictional exhibition and website prototype. The garden, programme, dates and prices are invented, the photographs are generated, and the planner saves to this browser only: nothing is paid for or booked.

23:00Gates close