Hi Kye,

I don't have seeds, but you can find many of these very dark hues among perennials that are usually propagated vegetatively (division or cuttings are the usual), especially among the heucheras, some ligularia, ajuga, and cimicifuga.

I've had good success with all the heucheras, but Midnight Rose has been an outstanding performer in terms of keeping its foliage dark. Ligularia 'Britt Marie Crawford' is getting harder to find, but I haven't seen anything newer that outdoes it on the dark-leaf front. Cimicifugas (bugbane) keep having updated cultivars added to their number. A fairly new one with darker foliage is 'Chocoholic.' Ajuga 'Black Scallop' may also help you; Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' has a darker green leaf that's tinged with brownish-purple and may go quite dark, depending on sun exposure/fertilizer conditions.

There are quite a few sedums with very dark foliage, and a variety of flower colors.

If you're going for grandiose, you can look at some of the almost-black-leafed canna lilies, also various alocasia ("Elephant Ears").

All of these will grow in Minnesota depending on which zone you're in, although the cannas and alocasia will require extra care. They're hot-place plants.

I'm more of a perennials gardener, so I don't know too much about finding what you want among the annuals, but you could try some of the coleus that have very dark leaves, some of which are even somewhat sun-tolerant. And there are some petunias out now that really are *black*. Amazing.

Joan

P.S. Producing very dark-to-black leaves and flowers is a tricky process of selection and hybridization. It's not common in nature. Your usual backyard gardener with seeds to offer will seldom be able to offer anything that's not open-pollinated and therefore can't be guaranteed to come true. If you're really looking for seeds you may be forced to go to the seed companies. For perennials, if you need to go "cheap," you have to hope for a lot of friendly neighbor gardeners who have what you're looking for and are in a position to give away divisions; or you might be able to get in touch with a local gardening club and ask if/when they do plant exchanges/sales.