Black Varnish Pseuderanthemum--common name: Chocolate Plant

I finally found the name of my mystery plant! 

After a Sunday morning-to-mid-afternoon full of heavy garden work, I was sitting on the deck perusing a small stack of old garden magazines.  I opened a Garden Design mag from 2008 and immediately saw this photo:

 

 

I think I made some sort of noise as DH looked over at me to see what was up.  "I knew I would eventually find it!" I exclaimed to his questioning look.

 

"Find what?"

 

  "The rubbery black plant in my container!". 

 

 He still looked puzzled. 

 

I explained how nobody on my blog knew what this plant was and I have been Googling terms like "black leathery plant" for months trying to find out what it was.  I finally have the answer:

 

Here it is on my deck (lower left):


Once I had the name, I found some info on the net.  As I suspected it's perennial in warmer climates

I love the color. I doubt if I will find it for sale in my town for years to come.   For those of us who love dark-foliage, it's a pretty unique container plant. As much as I dislike trying to overwinter plants indoors, I am going to give this one a try. 

Wouldn't it would look great planted underneath this canna lily with the dark striped leaves?

I wish I had purchased a few more!