Purple berry, foliage and flower
By: Garden Gate staff
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Add a punch of color!
Want a hue you can use anywhere in the garden? Try purple! Pale shades, along with pastels and gray foliage, create a serene setting. Or pair dark purple with bright colors for a bold look instead — it’s a great contrast to orange and yellow. Purple adds a subtle sophistication to showier colors, and when planted in a combo, it can even help other colors stand out more.
Depending on the type of plant and shade of purple you choose, you can create tons of different looks — just click ahead for three ways to add this bold hue to your garden with unique blooms, berries and foliage.
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ABC 2 Purple lisianthus Eustoma grandiflorum
If you love fresh-cut boquets, grow ABC 2 Purple lisianthus — It’s got long stems and flowers that look good in a vase for two weeks or longer.
Lisianthus is tricky to start from seed, so it’s easier to buy plants and put them out after danger of frost has passed. Since stems can flop over in rain and wind, give them support with wire grow-through stakes, which also helps keep them straight for cutting.
Type Tender perennial
Blooms Purple in summer
Light Full sun
Soil Moise but well-drained
Size 30 to 45 in. tall, 10 to 15 in. wide
Cold-hardy USDA zones 8 to 10
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 12 to 1
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Beautyberry Callicarpa dichotoma
Beautyberry is a versatile shrub that has graceful, downward-arching branches that make for an attractive hedge. The real draw is in fall, though, when the clusters of amethyst-purple berries form as the leaves turn bronze-yellow. Birds will stop by to enjoy the fruit, too.
Purple Pearls™ is a new cultivar with showier flowers, larger berries, purple-tinged fall foliage and a more upright habit.
Type Shrub
Blooms Pink-lavender in midsummer
Light Full sun
Soil Well-drained
Size 3 to 6 ft. tall and wide
Cold-hardy USDA zones 6 to 10
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 10 to 1
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Persian shield Strobilanthes dyerianas
Typically, you won’t get flowers on Persian shield, but you aren’t going to miss them, thanks to the vivid, violet-colored leaves and their silvery metallic sheen.
Pinch stems at the new growth points (called “terminal buds”) every few weeks to promote branching and get a bushier plant. It works great in a container, but it will grow to its largest size if planted in the ground.
Type Tender perennial
Blooms Insignificant
Light Full sun to part shade
Soil Well-drained
Size 18 to 36 in. tall and wide
Cold-hardy USDA zones 9 to 11
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 12 to 1
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