Gothic Flowers

I'm making the hero of my story venture through a spooky and beautiful garden. I had the whole thing imagined in my head, but when it came to writing it down, it all seemed to generic. In order to describe the scene properly, I needed to look at some of the strange flowers I saw in my mind's eye. This meant a trip to the Botanical Gardens or searching online. I choose the lazy route, with promises to myself that I will go to the garden once my semester is complete.

Below are my favorites-- the fruits of my laborious online search. They are all real plants with real names (which I realize now that I should have noted as I gathered the images- would have been good to share). I remember a few of them, the calla lilies, the dahlia, the fiddlehead fern, and one looks like an iris. I know for sure that the last image is the corpse flower (and since I don't have a great fondness for the aroma of rotting meat, it's the only one that I would leave out of my real gothic flower garden, once I plant one, that is). If you know the names of any others, I'd love it if you educated me! (Especially the 7th picture, I love those!) 

But even without knowing their names, I fell in love with their look. They are dark and twisty, spiky and swirly, droopy and fuzzy, fierce but also quite delicate. They helped clarify what I wanted to write and inspired me anew, for now, instead of passing through, I have created a reason for my hero to spend a bit more time amidst the gothic flowers-- and these blooms perfectly set the eerie tone with their spindly shapes, strange textures and lovely shades of purple, blue and burgundy.