Purple. It’s the color of royalty, one of the three colors of Mardi Gras, and one of the must have colors in any garden space. It can heat up a cool toned garden or cool off a hot toned garden. It works well as a wall color, but for me it shows its best face is when its attached to a plant. Here’s a list of 15 purple flowers and plants that you can add to your garden for some truly amazing results. Programming note: for this series, I am trying to feature new and upcomming hybrids and little used plants that people aren’t as familiar with as well as some of my personal favorite plants in the color theme.
Let’s get to this.
Cotinus coggygria var. ‘Royal Purple’
Zone: 4-8
Light: Sun
Plant Type: Large bush to small tree
Size: 12’-15’ tall and up to 12’ wide
Uses: With it’s amazing burgundy to purple foliage and smoke like pinkish purple flower blooms in late spring to early summer, this is a specimen plant that speaks volumes. It especially well as a background tree that adds both color and texture to a planting bed.
Fun fact: I fell in love with this deciduous tree after coming across it in a spread in Martha Stewart living, so much in love that I have planned a very specific yard expansion around this glorious tree.
Echinecea purpurea
Zone: 2-10
Light: Full sun to partial shade
Plant Type: Perennial
Size: 24” tall and up to 36” wide
Uses: Use in a meadow or cutting garden. Plant as a pollinator plant near a vegetable garden to bring bees.
Fun fact: Lots and lots of cultivars available. Also self seeding so you will get more every year. Bees and butterflies love these plants.
Rhododendron genestierianum
Zone: 4-8
Light: Partial sun to full shade
Plant Type: Large bush
Size: Up to 7’ tall and up to 7’ wide
Uses: Purple blooms. Rhododendrons work well in a formal hedge or in a woodsy setting.
Fun fact: Trim back hard after they bloom, but only trim them back immediately after the bloom because they set their buds for the next year very early.
Prunus cerasifera
Zone: 4-8
Light: Partial sun to full shade
Plant Type: Large bush
Size: Up to 7’ tall and up to 7’ wide
Uses: Purple blooms. Rhododendrons work well in a formal hedge or in a woodsy setting.
Fun fact: Trim back hard after they bloom, but only trim them back immediately after the bloom because they set their buds for the next year very early.
Agonis flexuosa ‘After Dark’
Zone: 10-11
Light: Full Sun
Plant Type: Small tree
Size: Up to Slow grower up to 20’’ tall and up to 15’ wide
Uses: With it’s semi-weeping form and dark purple leaves, this evergreen would work well in a huge container (think yellow or chartreuse!). It would also work well in a modern Asian inspired garden setting.
Fun fact: This species is native to Australia, so get 4 and hope it comes with a koala.
Cercis canadensis
Zone: 4-9
Light: Full Sun to partial shade
Plant Type: Large shrub to small tree
Size: 15’ tall and up to 15’ wide
Uses: Foundation planting, works well as a grand entry statement or a small accent tree.
Fun fact: I know spring has truly arrived when I see this in bloom when walking the dogs across University of Arizona’s campus.
Salvia nemorosa var. ‘Caradonna’
Zone: 4-8
Light: Full sun
Plant Type: Perennial
Size: 1’-2’ by 1-2’
Uses: This late summer bloomer looks amazing in a perennial garden, especially surrounded by other salvia species. Mass plant this for great effects. Can do okay in containers.
Fun fact: This, like most salvias, will attract butterflies
Iris brevicaulis
Zone: 4-8
Light: Full sun to part shade
Plant Type: Perennial
Size: 1’ by 1’
Uses: Container. Use in rock gardens or water settings, it is happiest in a marsh like setting. Great for fresh cut flowers.
Fun fact: When in bloom, head here or here.
Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Crimson Queen’
Zone: 5-8
Light: Full sun to partial shade
Plant Type: Small tree
Size: 10’ tall by 12’
Uses: Works well in large containers, in groups, or to break up large tracts of shrubbery. It’s lacey showy foliage is everything.
Fun fact: The leaves of this stunning tree may scorch during the hottest of the summer months, so plant in dappled sun if you worry.
Clematis x ‘Arabella’
Zone: 4-9
Light: Partial to full sun
Plant Type: Bulb which can be used as a vine or a small bush
Size: can get to be 6’ around and as tall
Uses: Works well in containers, or used in espalier on a fancy design-y trellis in formal gardens or let to run loose in a woodland setting.
Fun fact: Can be invasive or hard to control over time.
Limonium perezii
Zone: 10-11
Light: Full sun
Plant Type: Accent plant
Size: 3’ tall with flower stalks and up to 2’ wide
Uses: Great accent plant for tropical gardens. Interesting choice for containers and rock gardens. Works great on embankments for erosion control
Fun fact: Can tolerate sea spray so works well in coastal conditions.
Loropetalum chinense
Zone: 7-9
Light: Full sun to partial sun
Plant Type: Medium shrub
Size: Up to 5’ tall and slightly wider
Uses: Great foundation or accent plant. Can add much need color to a tropical or Asian garden.
Fun fact: Instead of using a boxwood hedge, try these! Also: evergreen above 0 degrees.
Platycodon grandiflorus mariesii
Zone: 4-9
Light: Full sun to partial sun
Plant Type: Perennial
Size: Up to 15” tall and spreads to 2.5’
Uses: Works well in rustic settings, perennial borders, and cottage gardens.
Fun fact: Before the bloom fully opens up, it looks like a balloon.
Salvia leucantha
Zone: 9-11
Light: Full sun
Plant Type: Perennial
Size: Up to 3’ tall to 4-ish’ wide
Uses: Perfect plant for slopes and banks. Looks awesome in a Mediterranean gardens. Suitable for Xeriscape gardens. Works exceptionally well as a border plant.
Fun fact: Hummingbird’s love the flowers on this plant.
Penstemon davidsonii
Zone: 4-8
Light: Full sun
Plant Type: Perennial
Size: Up to 24” wide and about as wide.
Uses: Suitable for Xeriscape gardens, wildflower gardens, and xeriscaping.
Fun fact: Native to the Pacific Northwest’s slopes.
One other note, while I was writing this, it kept taking me back to my maintenance days where I kept detailed lists of the LSU fans who needed lots of purple annuals in their yard and graph paper designs for layouts that would lead to tiger and LSU and fleur de lis designs for their yards. Thousands of petunias went into these.
So, what’d I miss? Anything you, my fair readers, love in a purple or lavender that is a must have in your garden?
All of these and more can be ordered as seed, bulbs, or bare root stock by using the Amazon Crasstalk link.
Photo Credits: Top Image. Cotinus cogygria. Echinecea purpurea. Rhododendron genestierianum. Prunus cerasifera. Agonis flexuosa ‘After Dark’. Cercis canadensis. Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’. Iris brevicaulis. Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Crimson Queen’. Clematis x ‘Arabella’. Limonium perezii. Loropetalum chinense. Platycodon grandiflorus mariesii. Salvia leucantha. Penstemon davidsonii.