Garden Noir
Dark Plants, High Contrast
When I first posted1 about this many years ago, dark, black or chocolate plants were coming into vogue, as were lemon, lime and chartreuse foliage plants. They both work perfectly well together creating a sort of Garden Noir- a high contrast, light and shade in the flower border.
The addition of tan colored Marmalade Heucheras and bronze leaved Euphorbias gets an even more complex array of hues. Look at this for a cool riff on those colors and this. This combination I snapped in a sidewalk garden in Provincetown. At Wave Hill I took note of plants like dark burgundy Perilla and chocolate stemmed Sedums.
In the Mamaroneck garden, I had started using this palette combining the dark leaves of the Weigela Wine and Roses, Berberis Thunbergii 'Rose Glow' , , and black flowers of Viola and Aquilegia Black Barlow to contrast against the lemon and chartreuse hues of Spirea and Creeping Jenny.
Tropical Noir
More than a decade later, this palette endures in my current tropical garden. My front porch which has since been dubbed the Dark verandah has black leaved Alocasias, black stemmed Rhapsis palms. I used to have black Sugar cane, an almost black Dracaena, black flowered bat lillies and a black bamboo which I have since lost but want to replace. The contrast of bright early morning sun and deep shadows expand the story.
I’ve extended the palette to include more yellows which wash out in the tropical sun to something closer to a monochromatic hue- yellow variegated Crotons, Fagraea Ceilanica and the yellow flowers of Ylang Ylang
The noirish elements are accentuated by dark chocolate salt glazed pots and rattan chairs, screens and wooden tables now varnished a dark almost black chocolate brown. These contrasts extend into the evening as dark painted textures are back lit or contrast against white walls.
I’m currently playing with textures using hanging mobiles or vertical structures that I intend to fill with epiphytes that are endemic to the landscape here mixing them with gnarly vines or dark stalks collected from garden trimmings. I’m just starting on these which I’m intending to shape into Botanic Sculptures. More on this to come.
