Stephen Scanniello, horticulture authority and one-time rosarian at the Brooklyn Botanic garden, once said that all gardens need some purple foliage to add interest. By “purple,” he meant a shade so dark that it is almost black. Combined with green, and especially golden green hues, this purple/black transforms mundane planting schemes into visual tapestries.
Thanks to promiscuous perilla mint, my garden has more than enough purple/black contrast. Of course perilla is an annual, but its self-seeding habits make it effectively perennial. By the end of the season, the most muscular perilla plants get to be about three feet tall, effectively mimicking shrubs. If I wanted to do so, I could let perilla do all the heavy lifting in the foliage contrast department.
Leaving well enough alone is not my strong suit.
As summer wanes into fall, I find myself craving dahlias, especially those with purple/black stems and leaves. There are many such dahlias, but horticulturists have dubbed some of them “Bishop’s Children.” These “children” are a rainbow-flowered tribe with flowers that glow like jewels in garden beds, containers and window boxes.
Plant lore is all about family trees and the “Bishop’s Children” have a common parent in a dahlia called ‘Bishop of Llandaf.’ This Bishop is a flashy dresser, clad in red semi-double petals that surround prominent yellow stamens. The flowers are positioned atop dark stems that can grow 4 to 5 feet tall, adorned with purple/black dissected foliage, which sometimes features bronze overtones.
Llandaf is an area in Wales that is now part of Cardiff, the capital city. It is also the seat of the Bishop of Llandaf, a high ecclesiastical official of the Welsh church. Back in 1924, the bishopric was held by a clergyman named Joshua Pritchard Hughes, for whom the original ‘Bishop of Llandaf’ was named. Hughes apparently did not want the plant to bear his family name. The arcane rules of plant nomenclature do not allow articles like “the” in plant names, so the new dahlia could not simple be called “The Bishop.” The name ‘Bishop of Llandaf’ proved to be agreeable to Bishop Hughes and the nomenclature experts. It stuck and has continued to stick for ninety years.
A bishop standing out in a field—or a garden—will inevitably command a lot of attention. In the case of ‘Bishop of Llandaf,’ that attention came in 1928 from England’s Royal Horticultural Society, which bestowed its “Award of Garden Merit” on the plant. The AGM recognizes ‘Bishop’s’ consistently outstanding garden performance. Attention also came in abundance from pollinating insects. Inevitably, seedlings appeared, many of which bore the same dark foliage, plus a range of flower colors, including shades of pink, yellow, apricot and orange. A slew of stars was born.
Some of the stars bearing the Bishop’s genes were named, while others were simply grouped under the “Bishop’s Children” heading. If you see a dark-stemmed and leafed dahlia in the local garden center, chances are it is a relative of ‘Bishop of Llandaf.’
Some offspring have the word “bishop” in their varietal names. A good example is ‘Bishop of Canterbury,’ which features dark red/purple flowers and dark foliage and stems. It is semi-double, like ‘Bishop of Llandaf,’ with the same prominent stamens. Finicky people like to note that there is no such thing as a Bishop of Canterbury, because the clergyperson in charge of Canterbury Cathedral is actually an archbishop. The dahlia does not know that, so I think it doesn’t matter.
Other ‘Bishop of Llandaf’ relatives include the beautiful ‘David Howard,’ featuring the characteristic dark foliage, plus fully double apricot flowers for contrast. It is a bit shorter than its parent, at 30 to 48 inches tall, but equally likely to grab garden visitors’ attention.
All dahlias like sunny spaces with good drainage. They are not hardy north of USDA zone 7b, but the tubers can be dug up in the fall, dried for a few days, stored in a cool location for the winter and replanted in spring after all danger of frost has passed. If that is too much trouble, treat both ‘Bishop’ and his children as annuals and repurchase every year. For a good selection of dark-leafed varieties, go to Plant Delights Nursery, 9241 Sauls Road, Raleigh, NC 27603, (919) 772-4794, www.plantdelightsnursery.com. Plant Delights has made the same catalog reimbursement request for years, asking that all catalog requests be accompanied by either ten first class stamps or a box of chocolates. The choice is up to you.