World's first black flower created

Petunias crossing to the dark side. Horticulturists today announced they have created the world's first black petunia and it goes on sale in the UK in the spring.

The flower took plant breeders in the US four years to create. Now, after a year of field trials in the UK to ensure it can tolerate our climate, its creators are launching it here.

Stuart Lowen, marketing manager with the Banbury horticulture firm which developed the flower, Ball Colegrave, said: "It's really quite an achievement to create a black flower, but for the customer it's the intrigue, it's sexy, it's something different."

In nature, flowers come in pretty much any colour you like – as long as it's not black. The pigments that flowers employ to colour their petals don't produce black.

But as any fashionista will tell you, anything goes well with black – a fact not lost on nursery men. So in the constant pursuit of new and therefore saleable varieties, breeders have long strived to produce blackest-looking varieties of flowers.

One of the earliest developed was the black tulip. There are now varieties of black rose, viola and hyacinth. The creators of the new petunia - dubbed "Black Velvet" - claim theirs is the blackest bloom yet produced.

"Novelty is always sought after in horticulture. It's what entices people to buy plants," said Janet Cubey of the Royal Horticultural Society.