A black-ish iris blooms

The photo on the left is a picture of iris variety “Before the Storm” in bloom in my yard from a few years ago. This iris variety is just about as black as a flower can get. Unfortunately, the iris plant died for some reason only a couple years after I planted it. On top of that, Before the Storm hasn’t been available at the online iris store I bought them from for a while; it’s always marked “sold out.”

The iris on the right is called “Midnight Oil”; I took this picture of it blooming only a few weeks ago. It bloomed for the first time maybe two years ago, and I was disappointed by it not being as black as “Before the Storm.” However, since the blackest iris died I’ll have to be satisfied with this one for now.

I have a third supposedly black iris in my yard called “Black Suited,” but it hasn’t bloomed yet even though I planted all three irises the same year. I moved Black Suited from its original planting spot about two years ago because it wasn’t flourishing or blooming. It would have bloomed last year, but somebody broke off the bud the iris had before it had a chance. This year, there’s more leaves but no bloom so far. I may have to move it again.

As you can see all over my website, black iris is a symbol of mine, and I love black flowers. People think of flowers as light and bright, so a black bloom blows all those presumptions out of the water. I would love to have a yard full of black flowers and plants in my front yard just to astound all the passersby.