Black Magic is my best dark red. It doesn't have a scent, but the blooms are beautifully formed and last forever. It gets very tall, 4-5 feet tall here and only 2 feet wide or a bit wider at the top. I do have Barkarole/Taboo but I haven't had much luck with it. Every once in a while it will have a really great dark red bloom with a nice scent, but it doesn't do this very often. It doesn't bloom much and the blooms don't always form very well. I've been giving it time since other people on the forum really like theirs but I wouldn't go through the trouble to get it again. It is the closest to black of any rose I grow. Ingrid Bergman is a good dark red too, not as dark as the others but the blooms have a bit of a scent and last a long time so it is nice to have. Ingrid does not get very large for me, maybe 2X2'. If you want more of a dark purple, then the Prince is the best of the dark purples. It has a good scent and lasts for a few days in a vase which is more than I can say for most Austins. The Prince is a smaller rose bush. Ebb Tide bloomed well but the individual blooms were small and didn't cut at all well for me. Mine didn't have a scent either although it is supposed to. Intrigue has the same dark purple color most of the time but it does turn red in the heat. Intrigue smells very lemony and doesn't grow very well or bloom very much, but a good bloom is very nice. I do have Blackberry Nip which is a dark purple hybrid tea, but it was a tiny baby last year with one bloom so I can't say much yet. That one bloom was very promising though.

That Sambucus is very nice. Purple/bronze foliage is a major theme in my tropical/mixed bed. The three standout backbone plants are barberry cultivars (including "Helmond Pillar" and a tall variety with horizontal interwoven stems), Cotinus "Royal Purple" and best of all, Physocarpus "Diablo". "Diablo" is putting on its one-week flowering show right now, but its major role is as a superb foliage backdrop for other flowering plants. It is basically bulletproof, needing only occasional pruning to control size (it wants to be massive). Purple/bronze foliage annuals this year include Cannas "Australia" and "Firebird", Celosia "New Look", Begonia "Big" (bronze-leaf form), Alternanthera "Little Ruby" and Canna "Tropical Red" (bronze-leaf variety). And yes, red/scarlet flowers are important too.

Harry, I am not touching Angel Face with a ten foot pole. It is not disease resistant enough for me and neither (far as I can tell) is any other "blue." Too bad, because it might look nice (or not... it's hard for me to picture it next to the slightly mustardy look of Paprika). Melissa, you need to look up Oso Easy Paprika on HMF. It is a sort of golden yellow with some red tinges. It would look more striking next to the MRHT if its flowers were anywhere near the red flowers, but the height difference of the plants keeps them separate so far. Actually the red HT suffered a whole lot over the winter and had a lot of kill so it is even more knobby kneed than before. :( Anyway, I am not sure a buff/apricot would work next to that yellow in the Paprika -- too pastel. I was eyeing Voodoo, actually, but again, I'm a bit worried about disease resistance. The red HT gets the worst BS in my garden and I don't want two BS magnets next to each other. Lady H is fragrant and the right color. There is some room for her to expand in two directions, so I'm not too too worried about size. Unless someone comes up with a really great idea, she may be the winner.

Yes, I did not want to bring up ... roses! We had a discussion about this a few months' ago. Aegis is quite the rose grower and helped me i.d. what I had. I finally told myself, "Roses are red, violets are blue." I have red roses in my outdoor garden. I had crimson orchids (I gave to a friend who grows orchids.) BTW, I saw a double or triple blue rose shaped AV on Ebay for $100. (The computer monitor might make it look more blue ... hard to know.) But $100 is hardly pocket change. As you say, I am also exploring other aspects of AVs, notably, light blue that are stable. Or a few edge variegated. After much commotion with experimentation, goaded by an expert grower in my club, I now want peace in the plant room. For example, I am tired of purple and white that turn solid white in winter. Or pure whites that decide to be blue.... Or green splotches that are supposed to be edges. And don't even mention "yellow." As for variegation, I was ridiculously happy with anything Apache for a very long time. The mosaic variation and semi double blooms in a rainbow of hues thrived in dappled window light. But then we moved, they did not like the new location, even though it is on the same street. The house is angled 90 degrees differently, making light requirements for blue AVs a more successful choice. They seem to do well in nearly any light. Simplicity. Joanne