Black Magic Hollyhock is said to be a rather muddy brown maroon in real life and has a very low survival rate.
Jungle Beauty Daylily, although more of a very dark purple, is still beautiful.
Black Barlow Columbine is more a dark blue/purple.
Black Magic Rose is about as dark/black as a rose comes. Black roses are often used in fiction to symbolize death, hatred, revenge, sorrow or mourning. Only in fiction is there a black rose. Well, fiction and tattoos - saw a lot of those while researching this little project...
Green Wizard Coneflower has a cone of brown/black & there are absolutely no petals.
In this 1942 hit written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, that old black magic could certainly pertain to black flowers in the garden. Magic Buster: There is no (nada - none - zip - zero) naturally occurring black flower known to man.
There is one a l m o s t black flower and that is the "Coal Black Pansy" shown above. Viola x wittrockiana is a genetically bred flower and is the most black of any flower.
There are several plants with foliage (elephant ear, fountain grass) that are touted as nearly black or with variegation's of black.
The bottom line: If you want a garden patch with black flowers, you may have to be happy with almost black or buy a can of spray paint or consider silk flowers or keep the light really low. But if you are happy with almost, there are many lovely almost black flowers. And you can at least have a nifty story to tell your visitors.
"Why," you may ask, "is there no black flower?" It's because insects do not like black flowers. It's that whole circle of nature thing. Plus, I'm sure flowers, by their very beauty, do not want to parade around in a Goth costume every summer - it just isn't garden magical . . .
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UPDATE: Henry Stark County Health Department will be at the Methodist Church in Galva, September 27 from 9-10 a.m.
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