Purple, the hottest color in haute couture for fall 2008, can be the coolest color in garden designs for fall. An amazing array of shades and patterns of purple were premiered by the fashion industry and flaunted by supermodels on the runway. Purple-toned plant supermodels and their accessories can be featured on your garden pathway this fall.
The Color Purple Supermodels
Rich hues of purple appear in foliage and flowers of a wide selection of autumn plants.
Japanese and wintergreen barberryshrubs (Berberis thunbergii and Berberis julianae) have deep purple leaves in fall and make excellent hedge or barrier shrubs due to their thorns. The purple grass skirts of festival and fountain grasses sway rhythmically with the wind. Underfoot ajuga, purple oxalis, tradescantia, and sweet potato vine cover the ground like silk scarves.
The enchanting torenia ( Torenia fournieri) or wishbone flower is best known by hummingbirds. The tubular flower has visible wishbone-shaped anthers down the yellow throat. This shade-loving annual can be used as a ground cover, in hanging baskets, or a woodland habitat. The open lips of clusters of blossoms resemble a purple-robed choir.
Ageratums ( Ageratum houstonianum) have soft cashmere fuzzy long-lasting flowers. The flower name means “without age” in Greek. The taller cultivar ‘Blue Horizon’ is a purplish-blue tone excellent in mass plantings and as a cut flower.
Gomphrena (Gomphrena globosa) or globe amaranth is an old-fashioned annual bedding plant experiencing a retro revival. It brings a range of desirable attributes to the contemporary garden. Vibrant purple clover-like flowerheads with stiff papery bracts are superb in fresh or dry arrangements. The plant is exceptionally tolerant of poor soil, heat, and drought. Butterflies are attracted to the globular blooms.
Purple Variegations
Variegated plants have immediate eye appeal. As horticulturist Tony Avent notes, variegation is a design tool to spotlight the variegated plant and the rest of the garden.
Two popular purple variegated plants for the fall garden are coleus and its look-alike perilla.
Coleus (Solenostemon) comes in a crazy quilt of leaf colors and patterns many of which include or feature purple. Coleus are invaluable in containers but are also used in mixed borders, rock gardens an as specimen plants.
Magilla perilla is a recent introduction from the cinnamon-scented leaved solid purple herb, perilla. The cultivar brings the bold vibrant colors of an exotic tropical dancer’s costume to the garden. Although best when planted in containers, most gardeners can’t contain themselves upon first seeing Magilla.
Garden Wardrobe Accessories
Just like an amethyst or tanzanite pendant, pin or ring enhances a purple outfit, a plant’s fruit, berries, pods and tassels accessorize the garden wardrobe.
Wild pokeweed berries dangle like purple beaded earrings along roadside ditches. Birds carry seeds into gardens.
American beautyberry shrub (Calicarpa americana) has purple blossoms which develop into cluster beads of purple berries encircling the stem like a bracelet. Branches with berries make handsome dry arrangements.
Hyacinth bean is a rapidly growing vine with purple stems, flowers, and pods. In fall the glossy flat seed pods dangle like polished purple patent earrings.
Consider the purple foxtail flowerheads of fountain grass as open air ornaments similar to elegant hair ornaments, hair sticks or hair pins worn in tribal ceremonies.
Gardens, like closets, accommodate only so much. With careful planning you will locate the basic purple plants and accessories to complement your fall wardrobe while creating a fashionable fall garden as well.
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