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Plants From The Dark Side

October 29, 2009
ROSIE SANDERS (born 1944)
Bat Flower Tacca Chantrieri ( England 2009 )

Maybe it's the Halloween season, or the economy, but black seems to be in.  Today, Wes Kennedy's blog here at Home Accents Today in "Designs For The Dark Side", calls attention to Tracy Bulla's extensive magazine gallery of furniture from the dark side.

Then this morning I opened NW Home & Garden in The Oregonian and see Gardening with black plants.

The color black is a rare beauty in the landscape, where it creates contrast and drama and heightens every other hue.

In fact, nature backs off pure black. Instead, she paints in shades of deep cocoa, midnight blue, deep purple, singed forest green, ghost gray or burnt cinnamon.

I learn from Kym Pokorny that there's a new book out: "Black Plants" (Timber Press, $14.95, paperback), by Paul Bonine.  In the book he introduces us to 75 black plants

Many of the 75 are new or lesser-known varieties of common garden plants, including camellia, tulip, dahlia, cosmos, carnation and even tuberous begonia.

Bonine says, "Dark shades goad other colors to greater heights, whether it be to shoot yellow or orange into the stratosphere or to hang a curtain behind a ghostly play of silver and whites."

That magnificent watercolor at the top is by Rosie Sanders who has "been exhibiting with Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery since 2002. She regularly exhibits at art fairs with the gallery, including; Art London, Chelsea, BADA Antiques and Fine Art Fair, The London Art Fair, Islington and Olympia International Art and Antiques Fair, London."

I suspect we'll see these mysterious plants from the dark side make their way from the garden to furniture and accessory atores.

Are you using black in your design or selling balck in your stores?  We's like to hear about it.  You can comment directly, email me at landfair3554@comcast.net or follow me @landfairfurnitu.

Posted by Mike Landfair on October 29, 2009 | Comments (0)