The Freaks Club

I enjoy growing dark-colored plants.  I have black flowers, bronze leaves, black fruits, all kinds of interesting things.


The rain garden under the downspout contains heuchera (back), bleeding heart (the frilly thing on the right), and columbine (center and left) among other things.  Nothing is blooming at present, but the seedpods on the columbines are drying into interesting shapes.  The small one is a new white columbine that I planted this year, with normal straight seedpods.  The taller one is purple from previous years and its seedpods often have a writhing shape.




The dark ruffled leaves in back are heuchera or coral bells. Many cultivars are dark green, red-green, purple, or bronze. There are also brighter green, gold, and silver ones. Planting this dark heuchera behind lighter green plants makes it look darker.




This is the "dark garden" cluster on my patio. The back two pots have black pansies and Johnny-jump-ups. Front left is 'Purple Ruffles' basil. Front right is a pot with 'Charmed Wine' burgundy oxalis, double picotee black petunia, and single black petunia.




Black pansies are typically dark purple or dark red, and vary how black they actually look. This is not the darkest one I've ever grown.  They also come in many other colors.  Pansies and violas are edible and their petals lovely in salads. You can make a simple syrup from black ones that typically turns out a deep jewel tone of purple or red.




Johnny-jump-ups or Viola tricolor are purple, yellow, and white. They make a perfect companion for black pansies or violas and make them look blacker.




This is my "dark flowers" pot. The pot itself is deep red with white speckles.  It contains a 'Charmed Wine' burgundy oxalis, double picotee black petunia, and single black petunia.  To show off dark flowers, I like either a dark pot (burgundy, cobalt blue, black, etc.) or a white one.  This speckled pot has the best of both worlds.




The 'Charmed Wine' oxalis has vivid purple leaves. It actually flowers pure white. It looks great in a pot with other plants that bloom in dark colors.




The solid petunia blooms a deep, velvety black.




This is a double picotee black petunia. A double petunia has a pompom of ruffled petals, whereas a single petunia has the classic trumpet shape. A picotee petunia has a white rim around a colored center. You can just barely see a line of purple where the black center meets the white rim.




This 'Purple Ruffles' basil is a deep purple. It tastes much like ordinary green basil but is prettier.




This skunk wandered onto my patio while I was taking pictures.  Shoo, shoo, this is human territory.




This container garden lives on the old picnic table.  You can see some of my fancy ceramic pots toward the front end.




My other 'Purple Ruffles' basil has more of a bronze tone. Colors can vary in this cultivar. It's growing in a trough alongside a curry plant and some other herbs.




Coleus comes in many colors, patterns, and leaf shapes. Among the darker colors are various shades of burgundy, bronze, and chocolate. These aren't the darkest I've grown but they're what I could find this year. When growing dark coleus, it helps to put a lime-green, gold, or pink one in the mix to make the dark leaves look darker.




My vegetable garden grows on the new picnic table. This minimizes the amount of bending over and weeding that I need to do.




I'm growing a bunch of different tomatoes, including cherry tomatoes.  Each has its own pot, surrounded by marigold plants to attract pollinators and repel pests.  Tomatoes come in a huge variety of colors.  Among our favorites are the dark ones in shades of burgundy, purple, chocolate, and rarely true black.

This is one of two 'Chocolate Sprinkles' cherry tomatoes. The fruit is big for cherry tomatoes, up to about ping-pong ball size, so I'd call it a salad tomato. They're striped in shades of brown, purple, and red. These were our favorite from last year with great flavor.




The 'Cherokee Purple" tomatoes have not set fruit yet. They are big beefsteak type tomatoes with a purple to chocolate color.




The chocolate cherry tomato has not yet set fruit. I expect it to be some shade of brown to purple.




This 'Husker Red' penstemon grows in the wildflower garden in the savanna. It was darker red when it was blooming earlier, and it had pale pinkish flowers.




Mulberries ripen to a glossy black. I have enough mulberry trees that even the birds can't eat them all, so usually I get some too.  You can use mulberries in any mixed-berry recipe or substitute them in most dark berry recipes like blackberry, black raspberry, or blueberry.  Here are some mulberry recipes.