In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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October 31, 2007

Black plants

I read an article the other day about the International Black Plant Society. The subject piqued my interest and got me thinking. Looking back, I realized I’ve come across quite an assortment of black-leaved plants as well as black flowers in my gardening adventures, but never gave it much thought.

Browsing through the nursery recently, I was amazed at just how many “black” plants there are. I really needn’t have looked much farther than my front porch, where I have the black sweet potato vine growing alongside the lime green one. It’s stunning. I’ve also paired the chartreuse-colored sweet potato vine with the dark purple ajuga and with the almost black heuchera.

The author of the short garden blog article, Heleigh Bostwick, says, “While the color black is not a true color in nature, horticulturists have been able to select for the darkest shades of blue (such as Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Black Barlow’) purple (like eggplants or those dark purple pansies) or even deep red like the black rose cultivar. All of these plants are described as black in color and appear so to the eye.” Bostwick notes there are 2,759 black plants according to Karen Platt, author of Black Magic and Purple Passion, and founder of the black plants web site.

A few favorites listed on the Black Plant Society web site are: Agapanthus ‘Black Panther,’ Dahlia ‘Arabian Night,’ Colocasia ‘Midnight Mystique,’ Aeonium ‘Zwartkop,’ Aquilegia ‘Black Barlow,’ Phyllostachys nigra and, top vote getter so far, Corylus avellana ‘Red Majestic.’

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