I like to punctuate a garden bed with velvety darkness. Nothing cuts the sweetness of all those frothy whites and blues faster than a black flower.
This year I turned part of my front yard into a new garden bed of wildflowers (hello, pollinators) and perennial grasses. The planting scheme is mainly white, purple, and butter yellow—with just a few black flowers. Guess where your eye goes first?
Here are 10 of our favorite black flowers for a garden bed:
Above: Papaver 'Black Peony.' Photograph by Annie's Annuals.
Deer-resistant but alluring to bees, Black Peony poppies are so named both for their color and for their large ruffled, double flowers, which can be as big as 5 inches in diameter. "The color, which is impossible to photograph, is a rich, dark-purple maroon," says Annie of Annie's Annuals. A Papaver 'Black Peony' is $5.95 per 4-inch pot.
Above: Trifolium. Photograph via Leila.
The color of Trifolium 'Dark Dancer' is somewhere between chocolate and dark purple. This variety of white clover is a good edging plant or ground cover and is hardy in zones 4-10. A Dark Dancer Trifolium plant in a 4.5-inch pot is $7.95 from Easy to Grow Bulbs.
Above: Hollyhock 'The Black Watchman' paired with snowball hydrangeas. Photograph via Chiot's Run.
Hollyhocks are old-fashioned flowers that bloom every other years (but re-seed freely). Plant against a sunny wall or fence and watch it get as tall as 7 feet. An heirloom variety, Hollyhock 'The Black Watchman' can easily be started from seed; a packet is $2.79 from Renee's Garden.
Above: Amsterdam-based garden designer Anouk Vogul mixed black scabiosa and grasses in a border at the Garden of Escher in France. Photograph via Anouk Vogel.
Scabiosa is an annual that will freely resow itself if you let its pincushion heads go to seed. This summer, I planted Scabiosa 'Black Knight' (a packet of 20 seeds is $3.50 from Chocolate Flower Farm) in my garden, interspersed with lavender and white foxgloves. Deer hate lavender and foxglove, which makes me love them deeply.
Above: A black border at the Garden of Escher in Chaumont-sur-Loire, France. Photograph via Anouk Vogel.
Punctuate a white border with spikes of black-purple grasses.
The black ornamental grass Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty' is a variety of pearl millet that grows as tall as 5 feet in full sun. With deep purple leaves and seed heads, it makes a good cut flower. It's easy to grow from seed; a packet of Purple Majesty Hybrid Ornamental Millet seeds is $6.95 from Park Seeds.
Above: Iris chrysographes 'Black Form'; photographs by Ben Rushbrooke via Flickr.
A Siberian iris with a velvety purple-black flower, Iris chrysographes 'Black Form' sometimes will appear with yellow veining (as shown, Right). A late spring bloomer, it will get as tall as 20 inches in a sunny border. A 3.5-inch pot of Black Iris is $8.75 from Edelweiss Perennials.
Siberian irises grow in clumps and after they bloom, and after they bloom their spearlike foliage stays green and upright for weeks in the garden. If you are looking for that old-fashioned iris that you remember from your grandmother's garden, however, you are probably on the hunt for a bearded iris.
Above: Bearded iris 'Hello Darkness'. Photograph via Lantliv.
Bearded irises are taller, showier, and named for the petals that droop conspicuously from the flowers' chins. Every garden should have some. They're hardy, generally, in zones 3-9, and you can push it to zone 10, (when in doubt, dig up the rhizomes and let them overwinter in a dark, dry, cool box filled with straw).
Bearded Iris 'Hello Darkness' is as black as an iris comes; available seasonally from White Flower Farm, Schreiner's Iris Garden, and Iris Farmer.
Above: Raised garden beds stained dark play up the contrast between black flowers and foliage and bright, new-green spring leaves. Photograph via Lantliv.
If you look closely, you can just make out Iris 'Hello Darkness' growing in the foreground of the farthest bed (in front of the dark-leafed smoke bush). Let's zoom in on the combination:
Above: Photograph via Lantliv.
The dark purple-leaved shrub on the right is the smoke bush Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple', which has flowers that look like puffs of smoke in mid-summer. A Royal Purple Smoketree Shrub is $11.95 from WaWasGarden via Etsy.
Above: Photograph by Justine Hand.
The Latin name for black pussy willow is Salix gracilistylus 'Melanostachys' and, says Justine, it "bursts forth in the early spring with bunny-like blooms or catkins, in a velvety jet black." (After catching sight of it in bloom, she planted black pussy willow of her own.)
Black pussy willow is actually a tree—it can reach a height of 10 feet and a diameter of 15. It likes wet soil and is happiest in a marsh or a wetland setting. A Jumbo Gallon Potted Black Pussy Willow is $25.95 from Sooner Plant Farm.
For more, see Trend Alert: Black Pussy Willow.
Above: Aquilegia 'Black Barlow'. Photograph via Longfield Gardens.
Columbine will naturalize in a partly shady garden with good drainage. For a dash of delicate darkness in the spring garden, plant Black Barlow Columbine (which will grow to a height of 32 inches); a packet of 30 seeds is $1.99 from Swallowtail Garden Seeds.
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