All "black" flowers are really dark purple, some darker than others. Only you can decide if it is dark enough to satisfy you.

A. chrysantha is 2'-3' high, or up to a metre if you like. But that is just the flower stalks. Yes, they will blow over sometimes. The rest of the plant is a low rosette of leaves.

Yes I grow it, and it's a beauty. My garden is quite exposed too, on top of a hill and very windy, and it gets to about 3' maximim.

I have seen some very dark purple 'Black Barlow' but it is quite variable and can be anything from darkish blue to a very dark purple.

Here too - a lot of wind - but the aquilegias don't mind it at all. The chrysantha I have is only in its first year of flowering - but it's not too tall.

Thankyou to all of you, who replied to my query,l shall now buy a,'Chrysantha', and l do agree, that the colour does vary in the bought,named, plants.The,'Black Barlow', l saw at a nursery, was just purple, and l do not have room for too many of the same colour,l already have a very dark purple vulgaris,and my own,'Woodside variegated',from seed, has the darkest purple flowers, whereas a bought one, is a rather wishy-washy lavender.

I think the degree of 'blackness' is also dependent on contrast with other colours. For example, I have Aquilegia 'Magpie' (syn. 'William Guinness' - seed from Plants of Distinction) and the flowers are a dark purple with a purplish-white edging. It's the contrast of the two shades that makes the flowers appear convincingly black and white.