An Alameda Garden: Gardening in Black and White

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Gardening in Black and White

I've been thinking about re-doing the small memorial garden I created for my cat, B.H., and I hit upon the idea of making it a black-and-white garden (since he was a black-and-white cat). The white part is fairly easy, and I've been surprised to see how many plants have been introduced recently with black flowers or foliage. I could choose from hollyhocks, iris, callas, and more, but before I go nuts buying from catalogs, I thought I'd put the question out there: What black or white plants (flowers or foliage) have you had success with? This site gets afternoon sun and it's not very big--maybe 2' deep by 3' wide. So please, give me your best suggestions--or warnings.

4 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear about your cat. I did a series of posts about black in the garden for the Garden Blogger's Design Workshop sponsored by the gang at Gardening Gone Wild
    http://fairegarden.blogspot.com/2008/02/color-in-garden-gbdw.html
    There are four posts showing black foliage and flowers or black in the name in my garden in TN.
    Frances at Faire Garden

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  2. This is a fantastic idea! And what a wonderful tribute to a beloved pet. I hope you find some black ideas. I'm sorry I don't have any to offer but will keep you in mind if I run onto any. Good luck. Keep us posted.

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  3. :( Sorry about your kitty.

    I have several black flowers in my garden. In the spring Queen of Night tulips. They start out dk purple but after a week when the light is just right you would swear they were black.

    See these two posts for photos
    http://gearacres.blogspot.com/2007_05_08_archive.html
    http://gearacres.blogspot.com/2007_05_05_archive.html

    I also have 2 varieties of black iris' and an almost black rose called Midnight Blue.

    I think against the right back drop these flowers a a knock out.

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  4. Jan,

    Thanks for the links--you're right, the black tulips are a great idea. I also enjoyed reading in your post from the second link about the book The Black Tulip. Sounds intriguing!

    claire

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