To people from a culture that is focused on the sensual, romantic and dark, a stroll in a garden can be seen as a highlight of an evening, a perfect setting for a picnic, or a great way to spend the weekend.
Many Goths have green thumbs and interests in the outdoors even though the subculture is normally thought of as avoiding sunlight and fresh air at all costs. For a group of people who do not follow the social norm in their everyday lives, it is not likely that they will do so in their gardening hobbies.
Themed Gardens
One way to Goth up a garden is to theme it. While many people may see themes as hokey, sometimes that’s where the fun lies. Not only do theme gardens include plants under certain colors or names but decorations such as cemetery furniture, cherubs, tombstones, antique ironwork, and stonework.
Themed gardens can include a focus on poisonous plants, which is only advisable if the gardener does not have children or pets that might nibble the plants. Keep in mind that other people's children and pets, and wild creatures might stray into the garden at any time, whether you want them to or not.
Other themes could be based entirely on the names of the plants. A theme of “Devil” plants including Devil’s Backbone and Devil’s Tongue could be fun for the devilishly mischievous Goth garden. A Shakespeare’s Tragedy garden with flowers and plants listed in such plays as Hamlet and Macbeth could give a Goth with a love of literature a place to retreat with his or her favorite sonnets.
Historical themes include The Abortionist’s Garden or The Victorian Garden. Both of these gardens consist of plants of historical value either through herbalist or medical usage or through literary mention.
Gardening in the Moonlight
Night is when Goths are usually out and about, or so it would seem. There are many garden plants that allow for beautiful and fragrant nightly strolls for the Goth with a green thumb. There are several varieties of plants that bloom primarily and night including Moonflowers, Night Phlox, Angel’s Trumpet, August Lily and Vesper Iris. Other flowers, like Tuberrose and Night Gladiolus, bloom in the day but release their fragrance only in the evening.
Other plants that might add some interest to night gardens are those with silver or white leaves or fruit. This might include varieties of wormwood, Silver Thyme, Alba Eggplant, Casper or Boo pumpkins, and Fraxinella or “gas plant.”
A Bloom That is Black
While black flowers do not occur in nature and hybridization has yet to come up with a truly black flower, there are many flowers that are said to be black. Many “black” flowers are actually a deep shade of purple, blue or red. These flowers are popular among gardeners who would like a darker theme to their gardens and include:
- Black Lily or Fritillaria camschatcensis comes in Spider, Black Jack and Black Beauty varieties
- Black Calla Lily that comes in Black Forest, Black Star, Black Pearl and Naomi Campbell
- Black Orchids are usually the rarest varieties of orchid including the Dracula Vampyra Orchid (Pleurothallidinae dracula).
- Black Rose including Chocolate Rose, Deep Secret and other dark red varieties
- Black Tulip (Lilioideae tulipa) including Queen of the Night, Black Hero, Black Diamond, and Black Parrot
- Black Carnation also known as Moonshadow (Dianthus caryophyllaceae)
- Black Peony Poppy (Papaver paeoniflorum)
- Black Beauty Coneflower or Rudbeckia occdentalis
- Black Cornflower (Centaures cyanus)
- The Sooty Black Dianthus (Dianthus barbatus nigriscens)
- Black Hollyhock or Alacea rosea nigra
- Black Prince Snapdragon or Antirrhinum majus
- The Coal Black Pansy (Viola wittrockiana) also known as Ladies’ Delight or Stepmother’s Flower
- Black Viola or Viola cornuta
- The Black Mourning Bride (Scabiosa atropurpurea) also known as the Our Lady’s Pincushion
- Hellebores (those flowers of the genus Helleborus) in black varieties including Ballard’s Black, Black Knight and Sorcerer.
Other dark plants include Velvet Night heather, Penny Black Nemophilia, and the Black Knight Butterfly Bush.
Resources
The Online Flowers Guide has an interesting article listing black flowers for a touch of the Gothic to any garden or bouquet.
Alchemy Works has a collection of Black Flower seeds for the Gothic garden.
While Gothic Gardening has been off the net for some time now, its pages have been preserved by Archive.org.
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