This Rare Almost-Black Tulip Is Perfect For Those Who Love A Darker Aesthetic

Having a well-maintained garden is one of those yard projects that can not only add value to your home (especially if you install raised garden beds), but also show off your personality through the types of flowers and color palettes that you choose to incorporate. While there are plenty of flowers that are perfect for people who love loud and colorful gardens, it can be harder to find flowers that match that quiet and darker aesthetic. Luckily, if you have been searching for a flower that can only be described as dark but regal there is one unique, almost-black flower that fits the bill perfectly — the queen of night tulip.

The queen of night tulip is one of the rare dark tulips that is such a deep shade of maroon purple that they appear to be almost black. Created over years of selective breeding and genetic modification, this tulip has earned the label of the darkest ever and is the perfect dramatic addition to any garden. As a perennial flower that comes back year after year, queen of night tulips are one of those easy-to-care-for bulb flowers that you can plant once and leave alone. Queen of night tulips typically bloom in late spring and are some of the tallest-growing tulips available reaching a height of around 22 to 30 inches, making them perfect to mix into flower beds with other perennials.

As spring-blooming bulb flowers, queen of night tulips need to be put in the ground in fall in order to start their germination process and grow in the spring. Queen of night tulips grow best in zones three through eight and are typically planted around six weeks before the first predicted hard freeze date or when daytime temperatures are consistently 60 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Because of this, planting time will vary from zone to zone.

Once you know when you will put your queen of night bulbs in the ground, you need to decide where. This variety of tulips does best in well-drained soil and can thrive in full sun or partial shade (they tend to look the blackest in the shade). These tulips should be planted about six inches deep and three to six inches apart. Like most tulip varieties, queen of nights are quite attractive to pests like deer and rabbits and may need to be protected when they first sprout in the spring using commercial repellents (or even a bar of Irish Spring soap).

As a relatively rare type of tulip, the easiest way to find the queen of night variety is to order them from reputable bulb vendors online like Breck's or Dutch Grown. You also may be able to purchase queen of night tulips online (but not necessarily in-store) from certain big box retailers like Home Depot and Walmart. But no matter where you find your queen of night bulbs, once you receive them, you will need to store them in a cool and dry place until they are ready to go in the ground. If you don't want to worry about storing your bulbs, you can find an online retailer that ships them according to your planting zone.

With their deep purple color, queen of night tulips work well with plenty of other flowers. Many people choose to plant their black tulips with white or pale tulip varieties to really show off the rich color of the queen of night. One Redditor planted their queen of nights mixed in garden beds with white hyacinths and "really [enjoyed] the contrast." Other gardeners decide to plant queen of night tulips with other flowers that add to the rich color palette like bronze fennel and bright purple honesty flowers or ornamental alliums (which also have the benefit of keeping voles away). Another benefit of planting your dark tulips with alliums is that the alliums will start blooming with the last of your tulips and then keep blooming into early summer when most of your tulips will be done.