Brown is Beautiful
As in fashion and interior design, a full spectrum of chocolately brown now frosts outdoor landscapes.
805 Living Magazine
February 2009
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By Debra Prinzing
As in fashion and interior design, a full spectrum of chocolatey brown now frosts outdoor landscapes. It shows up in pottery, furnishings and fabrics, but also in chocolate-colored – and scented – plants.
When we catch a whiff or a glimpse of this yummy flavor in a garden setting, it’s completely unexpected. Thanks to innovative nurseries and breeders, the darkest end of the floral spectrum is in high demand. You might call the trend “hot chocolate.”
Plants in mouth-watering chocolate hues aren’t limited to rich, saturated browns. Look for dusky or brown-streaked flower petals and foliage in the mahogany, cocoa and mocha tones. Together, they create an avant-garde planting style you’ll want to sample, a sweet treat for the senses.
“Without a doubt, dark plant colors are in vogue including the color chocolate,” says Nicholas Staddon, director of new plant introductions at Monrovia Growers, one of the country’s largest plant companies, which has a large nursery in Visalia, Calif. www.monrovia.com.
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Why are gardeners so enchanted with aromas of chocolate (or dollops of rich, brown pigment) in plants? It’s because for most of us, chocolate is associated with positive experiences.
Naturalist and poet Diane Ackerman describes the link between smell and the brain’s memory centers as a “scent impression,” one that follows “a route that carries us nimbly across time and distance.” In her 1990 book, A Natural History of the Senses, Ackerman points out that unlike the other senses, smell needs no interpreter: “A smell can be overwhelmingly nostalgic because it triggers powerful images and emotions . . . .”
Some plants release a chocolate aroma, recalling for us memories of grandma pulling Nestle Toll House cookies from the oven. Chocolate-mint scented geranium (Pelargonium ‘Chocolate Peppermint’) and chocolate culinary mint (Mentha x piperata ‘Chocolate Mint’) smell delicious when you rub their leaves. The tiny, daisy-like chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata), a night bloomer, releases its cocoa scent in the morning. The distinct fragrance of dark chocolate is carried across the garden when a breeze sways through a massed planting of chocolate cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus).
Once you’ve inhaled chocolate scents, you’ll also want to grow plants with sweet brown foliage or sultry espresso-colored flowers. They can be elegant and sophisticated, adding drama to a container design or a mixed border.
My fascination with dark-leafed and flowering plants began well before the current chocolate craze. Back in 2000, Karen Platt www.karenplatt.co.uk, a British plants woman and designer, wrote a plant guide called Black Magic and Purple Passion. U.S. gardeners snapped up her self-published reference (now in its third edition and expanded to include more than 2,750 dark plants), and ever since, the popular black-plant advocate has appeared at North American flower shows and garden clubs, including venues in Southern California.
I am not alone among plant-crazed enthusiasts who scramble to find and grow black plants. This appetite has expanded to encompass other dark-leafed and dark-flowering varieties. I’ve added purple, plum, cinnamon and spice-hued plants to my must-have list of dark plants.
Staddon, of Monrovia, suggests my response to chocolate plants might be emotional. “Along with the bronzes, reds, and purples – the one thing that ties these colors together is that they are colors of
passion.”
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Chocolate plants are in a category all their own, says Marie Lincoln, owner of a small but popular nursery and garden shop in Langley, Wash., on Whidbey Island.
She started the Chocolate Flower Farm in 2005 to grow and promote dark colored plants www.chocolateflowerfarm.com. As the “hot chocolate” trend grew, Lincoln and her partner Bill Schlicht searched for even more dark-brown plants, selecting unusual sports to propagate and sell as exclusive named cultivars. Lincoln jokes that her nursery satisfies a “collision of two passions,” as it introduces new and veteran gardeners to the beauty of chocolaty colors in the landscape. “People experience a primal response to chocolate,” she says. “It makes them happy.”
(Almost) good enough to eat
Create your own candy-inspired landscape. Here are some great choices for Southern California chocolate (plant) fanatics. You may need to search mail-order sources on the Internet or ask your local garden center to place a special order for these chocolate-brown varieties.
Bulbs: Gladiolus ‘Espresso’
Grasses and grass-like plants: Carex tenuiculmis ‘Cappuicino’; Carex comans ‘Milk Chocolate’; New Zealand flax (Phormium ‘Chocolate’ and Phormium tenax ‘Coffee’); and Bauer’s Dracaena (Cordyline ‘Baueri’), which Nicholas Staddon says reminds him of the color of Cadbury’s bitter chocolate.
Orchids: Cymbidium Accent 'Chocolate Chip', with burgundy dots on chocolate-red petals and ‘Sharry Baby’, a chocolate-scented spray orchid.
Perennials: Chocolate cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus); Dahlia ‘Chocolate Orange’, with peachy flowers and black-brown foliage, and Dahlia ‘Hot Chocolate’, with dusky foliage and deep purple flowers; Geranium ‘Chocolate Candy’, G. ‘Kahlua’, Geranium phaeum ‘Chocolate Chip’; Heuchera ‘Chocolate Chip’, ‘Cappuccino’, ‘Chocolate Ruffles’ and ‘Chocolate Veil’
Roses: Rosa ‘Black Tea’, ‘Brown Velvet’ and ‘Hot Cocoa’
Succulents: Echeveria ‘Chocolate’
Trees/Shrubs: White chocolate crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica White Chocolate’), with burgundy spring foliage that matures to chocolate-tinged green; Summer chocolate mimosa (Albizia julibrissin ‘Summer Chocolate’), the elegant silk tree with burgundy-black foliage; and Forest Pansy Redbud (Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’), with gorgeous, heart-shaped chocolate-maroon foliage.
Tropical plants: Tropicanna Black Canna, with chocolaty-black foliage; Rubber plant (Ficus elastica ‘Black Prince’); Hibiscus ‘Black Cherry’; and Coleus ‘Chocolate Bingo’
--Debra Prinzing
