A Truly Black Viola

12 Comments
Photo by Gayla Trail All Rights Reserved

There are several pansies and violas that claim to be black, but when it comes down to it they are purple, more or less. Ever since Mr. Brown Thumb posted about his not exactly black, black viola, I have been meaning to pull out a photo of Viola cornuta ‘Black Magic’, the blackest flower I have ever seen. It lives! The black viola lives! The colour in my photo above is pretty true to life — there’s no Photoshop trickery at work here. In fact, I’d say it looks a little more purple in this light than it does on the average day. From afar it has a smoky softness about it.

I bought a single pot of it this year, and only one pot because boy did it break the bank. I’ve complained about the “Not 99 Cent Pansy” before, however this plant, this single, solitary plant, ran about $7.99.

But it was worth it. I’ve had it for over a month now and I look at it fondly every day.

Gayla Trail
Gayla is a writer, photographer, and former graphic designer with a background in the Fine Arts, cultural criticism, and ecology. She is the author, photographer, and designer of best-selling books on gardening, cooking, and preserving.

Subscribe to get weekly updates from Gayla

12 thoughts on “A Truly Black Viola”

  4. Those are beautiful! Thanks for sharing the pic, I’m going to have to go see if I can find anything like that in the garden centers near me.

  9. Love it! I just planted some pansies. In this area, people usually take pansies *out* at this time of year because they get leggy and stop blooming. I’ve been told that with haircuts and TLC they will rebloom in autumn. I filled a wagon with other plants at a local nursery’s clearance sale, and the cashier said if I wanted pansies I could take as many as I wanted. Free. I did a double take when I saw they had black. She was glad I enjoyed the color, because “most people don’t like the black ones” and she was fond of them herself. Mine are “Atlas Black.”

Comments are closed.