“I knew I didn’t want a standard garden,” says Hurst, a 29-year-old graphic designer from Ontario, Canada. “I wanted it to be a little spooky, almost like you’re walking through a cemetery. One of my friends who owns a nursery had these beautiful black petunias, and that was exactly what I needed. I started a collection of all these really beautiful dark plants.”
Hurst is part of a new group of gardeners creating highly personalized and carefully curated outdoor spaces.
“A lot of people got into gardening during covid, so we’ve got a whole new generation that is into the hobby,” says Margaret Shields, director of plant breeding at Ball Horticultural Company. “But they don’t want their grandmother’s garden. They want something that reflects who they are. I think that’s where some of the preference for dark has come in, as this younger generation is looking for things that reflect their identity.”
In Hurst’s case, that identity is “goth gardener.” She started @theg0thgarden, a dedicated Instagram page for her plants, in 2023, and now has more than 225,000 followers. Her garden is also a hit with the neighbors — most of them, anyway.
“The people on my street that know me, they absolutely love it, and the majority of the feedback I get is that people think it’s cool,” Hurst says. “But I also have a couple people in town that are very religious, and I’ve gotten fliers left at my door that tell me to seek Jesus, or had people say they’re afraid. But come on: You can’t seriously be afraid of plants.”
A Victorian revival
Goth gardening tracks with a resurgence in “emo” and “goth” fashion and culture (see: Netflix’s hit show “Wednesday”), but it certainly isn’t a new idea. The Victorians were the original goth gardeners, says Caroline Holmes, an author and garden historian in Britain.
“Once we get into the Victorian era, beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” she says. “And in their gardens, they were expressing that beauty in their own way.” Often, that meant creating outdoor spaces that felt a bit melancholic, with meandering paths, shady hideaways and, in some cases, obvious odes to the departed.
“It’s the start of people having more modest gardens — they weren’t limited to just large estates — and they did things like create pet cemeteries with little monuments for their animals out in the garden,” Holmes says. The widespread use of statuary — especially mythology-inspired figures — only added to the vibe. Hurst has taken inspiration from the Victorians here.
“I love statues,” she says. “This year, I’ve added a lot of angel statues that look like they’re crying. I’ve got a couple of big urns and trellises. I just got one that looks like a giant birdcage. It’s so weird and I love it so much.”
The plants popular in the Victorian era also lend themselves to damp, dark corners. “Moss houses were very in fashion,” Holmes says. “It was very popular to have garden buildings that were very dark, with stained glass, and filled with different mosses. There was also a big fern mania. People were very into collecting ferns, and those typically want to grow in the shade.”
Breeding black blooms
Many modern goth gardeners also include shade-loving plants and mirrors or stained glass decor in their outdoor spaces. But they have access to something the Victorians didn’t: breeding technology that allows scientists to create flowers and foliage in all manner of dark colors.
In 2011, Ball Horticultural began selling the first black petunias: Pinstripe, Black Velvet and Phantom. Now goth gardeners can find countless black and other dark-colored plant and flower varieties.
“Black Hero tulips are my favorite,” Hurst says. “They look like peonies, but they’re like a dark purple, almost black. You can also get Queen of the Night tulips, which are a little smaller. In my garden, they’re some of the first flowers every spring..” Hurst also likes black mondo grass and Arabian calla lilies for a moody vibe.
Ball Horticultural recently introduced a black variety of angelonia called AngelFlare and the Tattoo Black Cherry vinca, a dark pink flower that looks like it’s been brushed with deep purple ink.
Growers wanting to add even more darkness can look for sweet potato vines in varieties including Blackie, Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Jet Black and SolarPower. There are also plenty of dark vegetable varieties, such as deep red and purple herbs and lettuces, burgundy broccoli, and tomatoes and peppers in shades of brown and black.
Hurst says she’s always looking for the next shadowy plant to add to her garden. “It’s expensive, and a labor-of-love kind of hobby, but I can’t imagine I’ll ever stop adding to it,” she says. “I’m dying to get my hands on this new black hydrangea [the Eclipse bigleaf hydrangea] with these beautiful dark leaves.”
Shields says her team is working steadily to introduce even more dark plant varieties. “Plant breeding follows fashion a little bit,” she says. “In the last 10 years, we’ve started to see black walls and doors become popular in homes. Then, you start to see the flowers go that way. Novelty is always what we’re looking for.”
While Hurst is delighted at the goth garden’s popularity, for her it’s less about following a trend and more about creating a space that helps her tell a personal story.
“I always say it’s like gardening on dark mode,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong. I think the more traditional bright pinks and purples in people’s gardens are gorgeous. But I just love that my garden has somehow created this haunting ghost story, almost. That’s my favorite part of building a garden: creating a really cool story with it.”
Kate Morgan is a freelance writer in Richland, Pa.
