Once again Valentine’s highlights romance in February. For the garden enthusiast, however, maybe it’s time to take a slightly different point of view. Chocolate and flowers are the most common gifts on Valentine’s Day, but if you really want to inspire love, you might consider combining the two for your favorite gardener.
Chocolate flowers for the garden can be great gifts for Valentine’s Day gardeners. Here is a list of some plants that will perfume the garden with lovely plants that offer the delicious scent.
- Chocolate Daisy, Berlandiera lyrata is a good drought-tolerant choice.
- Scented geranium ‘Chocolate Mint’ is fuzzy and soft to the touch.
- Chocolate Cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus) is a showy annual.
- Chocolate mint (Mentha piperita) is an herb that can be invasive.
- Chocolate columbine (Aquilegia ‘Chocolate Soldiers’) is decorative in the flower bed.
- Chocolate vine evergreen climber Akebia quinata as an ornamental clambering vine that can be invasive.
- Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus) is a large shrub with a cinnamon-chocolate aroma.
- Or try the orchid “Sharry Baby” (Oncidium) for the aroma of chocolate indoors. It is one of the easier orchids to grow.
These are just some of the fun chocolate-scented plants that will thrill the Valentine’s Day gardener. And if you just want the look of chocolate in the garden, check out Dahia ‘Chocolate Sundae’, the dark-leafed Eupatorium rugosa ‘Chocolate’, the deep colored ground cover Lysimachia congestiflora ‘Persian Chocolate’ or the ‘Hot Cocoa’ Rose.
Mix and match chocolate colors and fragrances in the garden and you can say ‘love’ in the garden year round. There is also a site dedicated to the subject at The Chocolate Flower Farm: http://www.chocolateflowerfarm.com. There you will find plants and products from the garden that will thrill any chocoholic.
Comments