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in the garden – goth garden plants

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a round white marble table with white ironstone pitcher and washbowl filled with limelight hydrangeas and goth dark purple amaranth. On the table a dark black beauty dahlia, purple amaranth, and coral love lies bleeding amaranth draping over the edge of the table

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

-Edgar Allan Poe

Where does one go when looking for darkest plants for their goth garden… well I asked that question and had trouble finding the answer. If you identify as goth, dark, witchy, punk you might appreciate this post since these are not your granny’s cottage garden plants. Even if you don’t identify with those things and are just looking to add contrast in food or plantings and floral arrangements this list might help you find what you are looking for.

As someone who has consciously searched out dark plants from edibles to florals and foliage- there is very little true black in the plant world. The best you can expect is typically going to be a very deep saturated purple so searching the term “black garden plants” will not necessarily yield the correct results. This list is not complete since it really only includes things I am able to grow in zone 5/6 NY and not the many plants that thrive in warmer climates.

Edibles

Plums, pears, black raspberries, blackberries, dark opal basil and tatsoi, dark purple bush and pole beans, and tomatoes tinged with black these are a few of my favorite unconventional things to grow in my veggie garden and orchard.

Varieties to look for

  • Elephant heart plum
  • Red Seckel pear
  • Black raspberry
  • Red noodle bean
  • Dark opal purple basil
  • Thai purple basil
  • Persian basil (some are black speckled and some come out darker than others)
  • Alice’s dream tomato
  • Queen of the night tomato
  • Royal burgundy bush beans
  • Sugar magnolia snap pea
  • Blackberries & mulberries
  • Purple bok choi, red scarlet tatsoi
a hand holding two halves of a plum, one with red flesh facing up and one with yellow/red skin facing down
fingers lifting a dark purple pear on a leafy branch into view
a hand full of black cap raspberries that look almost black, in front of leafy meadow foliage with raspberry can emerging
a hand lifting a dark purple long bean into view in front of a wire trellis of bean vines
a dark leafed basil in dappled light
a hand with stack of silver bangles holding four brad's atomic grape tomatoes with gradient from bright yellow and orange to black in the foreground. a leg wearing denim shorts and spiked black sandals, white gravel, and black basil in the background
a large two toned diagonal patterned basket on weathered wood slats of a lounge chair, filled with tri color beans in yellow, green, and dark purple
a blue bowl of shelled peas, and a turquoise ceramic berry basket with tri color peas in yellow, green, and purple
a hand with stack of silver bangles holding palmful of large blackberries in front of a lush green bush filled with red unripe blackberries in background
a garden bed covered in hoop of plastic and moisture clinging to it protects a bed of green and purple bok choy in colored rows.

Tomatoes I wanted to like:

  • Wooly Kate & Queen of the night (both had such bad pollination)
  • Brad’s atomic Grape, Bosque Blue, and Black strawberry (bc they got spots so easily and spoiled quickly)
  • Black cherry (they split so easily and aren’t that dark/black)

Tomatoes I want to try – indigo sun, black beauty, indigo kumquat, indigo blue chocolate

Flowers

Tulips

  • Black hero (double)
  • black parrot (ruffled/serrated)
  • Queen of the night (single)
a hand holding black parrot tulips in clear crystal vase in front of dark wall
a garden bed with black and white tulips in foreground and blurry view of garden in background
a hand holding black hero tulip in foreground with more tulips and blurry garden in background
a black hero and open black parrot tulip in foreground and blurred view of garden, deck, and trellis in background

Dahlias

  • Hollyhill Black beauty (solid)
  • creme de cassis (the back is a deep inky purple)
  • hollyhill bewitched (streaks of dark purple)

Honorable mention: I’ve been trying to grow these and either had tuber fails, wrong color, or been unable to order: Hulin’s carnival, lights out

Hollyhill Bewitched, a dark red purple flower that is almost black with spots of dew on petals
a hand with silver bracelet holding Creme de Cassis, a pale purple flower with dark purple backs of petal.
a hand with dark purple nailpolish holding speckled dark flower Hollyhill Bewitched

Perennials

  • Lilies (nightrider shown below, landini, blackstone, mapira)
  • Bearded Irises (so many to choose from schreiners iris has several)
  • Columbine (black Barlow, pleated blackberry)
an inky purple almost black bearded iris with drops of dew on the petals
an inky dark purple bearded iris in garden bed with pale pink bearded iris in background
a star shaped dark black nightrider lily with dark sepals on a plant with three more unopened buds. Mulched garden bed in background.
a cluster of dark purple double petaled columbine flowers in angled moody lighting in a garden bed

Annuals

  • Sunflowers (Queen of the night, black beauty)
  • sweet peas (almost black or beaujolais)
  • scabiosa (dark night)

Honorable mention: black magic or chocolate cosmos and nigra/black hollyhock

a opaline hobnail vase with clear/opaque milky white glass filled with dark purple sweet peas on a granite mantle with brass candles and black wall in the background
a hand holding two bunches of flowers wrapped in brown paper, one is black night scabiosa and other is scabiosa seedheads
a dark red almost black sunflower, even the center seeds are black. There is a ring of orange close to the seeds/center and a yellow and black bumblebee crawling there. In the background there are other yellow and black sunflowers and a lawn, orchard, and forest
a dark purple almost black sunflower, even the center seeds are black. a lawn, mulched bed, and forest

Foliage

  • Hibiscus dark foliage (summerific evening rose & choco latte)
  • Redbud (forest pansy), amaranth (opi red)
  • Huechera (black pearl, obsidian, cracked ice)
a lush green rain garden with a few allium and bearded irises in bloom surround a redbud tree with dark purple foliage
a dark foliage hibiscus with bright fuchsia blooms and colorful garden flowers and concrete bird bath in background
a round white marble table with white ironstone pitcher and washbowl filled with limelight hydrangeas and dark purple amaranth. On the table a dark black beauty dahlia, purple amaranth, and coral love lies bleeding amaranth draping over the edge of the table
a cluster of dark foliage heuchera in bloom surrounding a concrete bird bath, with curving garden bed, green forest, and fire pit in background

If you’re goth gardening in a different zone or have some other black/almost black plants you love, feel free to leave them in the comments so others can add a little darkness to their gardens!

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