I bought my first Primula auricula back in 2010. It’s dead now, a casualty of the move. I’ve successfully grown other primulas since, but it’s the diminutive, silvery auriculas that really captivate me.
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A Truly Black Viola
There are several pansies and violas that claim to be black, but when it comes down to it they are purple, more or less. Ever since Mr. Brown Thumb posted about his not exactly black, black viola, I have been meaning to pull out a photo of Viola cornuta ‘Black Magic’, the blackest flower I have ever seen. It lives! The black viola lives! The colour in my photo above is pretty true to life — there’s no Photoshop trickery at work here. In fact, I’d say it looks a little more purple in this light than it does on the average day. From afar it has a smoky softness about it.
I bought a single pot of it this year, and only one pot because boy did it break the bank. I’ve complained about the “Not 99 Cent Pansy” before, however this plant, this single, solitary plant, ran about $7.99.
But it was worth it. I’ve had it for over a month now and I look at it fondly every day.
Leave a commentSweet Sorghum
I took this picture at the Montreal Botanical Gardens where to my delight they had a bed of cereal grains growing in the edible garden section. I love this place.
The name was too long to put in the title line so here it is: Sorghum bicolor gr. Saccharatum ‘Black African’.
The name gave me some clues to its usage and in looking it up I have discovered that it is indeed used to produce a sweetener called sorghum syrup. The stalks are sometimes made into ethanol.
The internet also tells me that it is believed that the crop was introduced into the Unites States by slaves who brought seeds with them from West Africa.
Leave a commentBlack Tulips and Orange Icelandic Poppies
A very colourful combination currently blooming at the Queen Wilhelmina Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park (right underneath the giant windmill where the park meets Ocean Beach).
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