"There's a unicorn in the garden and it is eating the lilies."

James Thurber

You do need help, your garden doesn't sound very interesting!

What about Phygelius 'Devil's Tears', Lilium 'Bella Lugosi', Sedum 'Dragon's Blood', or Crocosmia 'Lucifer' just to add a little color and flavor.

Welcome black fiend. New you say, yet so jaded, so dark. Dissatisfied with the lack of sulfur is it? Strange then that fire is the answer to both the beginning and the blackening of life, cook it. You forget a stubborn will, you deny the seed pushing out of your darkness. I refuse to condone your maudlin negativity, plant a good seed.

How about trying some Hemlock? If it is good enough for Socrates....well, enough said.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Ideas

After all that and "Big John" was the best you could conceive, laughable. (but well written) :)

Wolfsbane/Monkshood/Aconitum will entice and entrance with her purple cloaked blooms but steer clear for she will strike down anyone foolish enough to eat her fruits. (most seriously!) If you seek the cloaked and hooded darkness, the voodoo lily, with her 6' stalk as big as a human's arm and the blood red spathe, not to mention the odour of raw meat - tis the sinister sister for the truly dark and gothic garden. If this seems on the aggressive size, the arisaema fargesii - an asian cobra lily seethes sinister with her two hand wide trifoliate shiny leaves, and almost black pitchers with dramatic white stripes.
Your introduction has intrigued me, please post photos when your garden seethes with darkness!

Try to get Karen Platt's book called 'Black Magic & Purple Passion'. It is full of awesome photos and descriptions of divine black or almost black plants. Daylilies, iris and asiastic lilies are supposed to be able to withstand neglect and the daylilies and iris in particular have many gorgeous black beauties! Stay away from poison ivy - that's one really great thing about living in northern Alberta - no poison ivy and the other is no snakes! I don't have a guillotine but I am getting my husband to weld me up a gothic arbor seat out of antique harrows. Our terraced gardens, patio etc. have to be cattle and horse proof as we use those critters to 'mow what lawn' there is - I'm probably the only gardener with an electric fence neatly attached to my log home, patio and terraced gardens with horsehead shaped plastic insulators! And believe it or not even the critters are fascinated by my stainless steel gazing ball in it iron stand - just another neat 'Goth' touch in the 'Goth' or black terraced garden. I have a 'Moon' or terraced White Garden complete with feature rocks from the ranch and a mugo pine. The last terraced garden is my 'Pink Garden'. Our terraced gardens are made from recycled railway ties and we built our own home out of logs. Our north entrance is finished with recycled pebble cement and smooth river rock is being used in hilly areas to make dry stream beds. All I need is some Round-Up on those rocks placed over heavy plastic and I'm set to go. I do have some features set in or on the river rock (a huge rusty iron gravel grate and a rusty old gear from a large piece of equipment.) Smaller pebble gravel will be used for the pathways and where we park the vehicles - but no worries - along the north veranda we'll also have a horse tying rail just like in the westerns. We farm so we don't have a lot of extra cash thus we are using unique iems and/or stone found on the ranch. This is keeping our costs to a minimim. I can' wait until next year to see thos terraced gardens as I've planted tulips, iris, crocus, daylilies, asiastic lilies, and few other perennials. I've purchased poppy, hollyhock and a few other intriquing perennial seeds to start this spring for top off each garden.

Hi, Levi!

If you like castor plants, get some seeds for New Zealand Purple. It's far darker than Carmencita, sort of maroon/purple/bronze. The new leaves are dark blood color as they emerge.

Another great gothy plant is solanum atropurpureum. The stems are so dark a purple they're almost black; the leaves are dark purple-green, and the whole thing- stems, leaves and roots - is covered with long, dark purple spikes. Very wicked looking!

On the moongardens forum there was a thread awhile back that was on spooky gardens~some ideas there.

Here is a link that might be useful: spooky gardens

Check out:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54257/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2007/02/05/eden_titan_arum_feature.shtml

I love the concept. Another fascinating theme garden: Injury. Bruise-colored foliage and bloom. I'm sorry I already composted a lot of dead plants, I would have been glad to send some to you.

Good luck with the goth garden!

K