Continuing my quest to find the darkest flowers I can successfully grow at home, I planted some Hyacinth 'Midnight Mystic'® bulbs last year. They've been flowering throughout March, and have produced some really pretty purple-black blooms.

Pumpkins are inescapably associated with Halloween, and are therefore spooky and fitting plants for any dark garden. This year is the first time I've tried growing them. I had some success, but I couldn't compete with the huge ones in the shops.

Snapdragons are fun flowers. My Nan used to have some in her garden, and when I was small I would squeeze them to make the 'dragons' open their 'mouths'. I only recently learned their sinister secret (possibly because I used to pick all the flowers before they had a chance to go to seed).

Growing sunflowers is a rite of passage for many young children in the UK, competing with siblings to see whose flower can grow the tallest. My girls are too young to appreciate it this year, but I thought I'd do a test run anyway. Especially when I heard that you can get black sunflowers.