Black is beautiful!

Have you tried black pansies? I never thought I'd be so excited about a flower I initially thought was tacky or gimmicky.

They're terrible in beds. They do nothing and nobody notices them. But, wow, planted with other flowers in containers or other specialized areas and they create a real knockout.

My favorite is black pansies planted with orangy-gold marigolds in a container--with bright yellow swan river daisies flowing over the edges. It commands immediate attention.

They're eye-catching planted in the ground, too, adjacent to white stones which are a nice covering for a planting of hybrid tea roses mixed with dusty miller (the oak-leaf variety). There's a clump of black pansies against a white birch log (which supports a container of purple wave petunias, trailing verbena "imagination" and nierembergia "mont blanc"). And clumps of black pansies next to a little fence that ends the white-stoned area.

Visitors also like black pansies planted with clear orange ones: sort of a "Halloween duo."

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