With the 31st nigh upon us, it’s a fine time to point out that dressing in black costume to rise to the spooky occasion of Halloween need not be limited to wannabe ghouls, goblins and witches. The San Francisco Chronicle points out that there are lots of options for adding dark, mysterious touches to your garden as well with the addition of black plants.
Many of these are familiar, at least in name and form, and are less common dark varieties of well-known flowers such as the tulip or the iris. While some of these feature a true black hue, others are extremely dark shades of red or purple but appear black.
As the Chronicle explains, the anthocyanin class of chemical compound is responsible for imparting the otherworldly coloration to dozens of dark flowers and other ornamental plants. Anthocyanins are most commonly expressed as deep reds and purples, are present in beets, blood oranges and English copper beech trees, and have been explored for use as an alternative to silicon in solar cell technologies. Here, though, we’re mostly interested in anthocyanins for the funereal pall they cast over more than 70 choices one might make for a ghastlier, grimmer garden.
Several dozen varieties are described in the recently published reference book Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden by Paul Bonine. As Timber Press, publisher of Bonine’s volume, entices, this book supposes of the strange allure of black flowers and plants that “[w]hatever the source of their somber magic, these dusky denizens of the plant kingdom are irresistible to anyone drawn to nature’s more unusual manifestations.”
Bonine offers some planning and planting advice to the Chronicle: black plants and flowers have more visual impact when they are contrasted against lighter surrounding plantings, specifically mentioning golden hued leaves as likely to deliver a high “wow” factor … in addition to a high “boo” factor.
Photo courtesy of Tie Guy II, via Flickr
