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Perennials Daylilies Roses

Purple in the garden 2023

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

last year

try to save your blues for a post of that name ... though those 2 colors are very hard to do that with ..

ken

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oursteelers 8B PNW

last year

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Comments (74)

Feiy (PNWZ8b/9a)
last year
These three roses have the most purple blooms in my garden. They all have "blue" in their names. LOL.

Rhapsody In Blue

Veilchenblau

Midnight Blue
Brad KY 6b
last year
Wow, so many great purples. I need to get some Lupine, Peach leaved bellflower and perhaps Wisteria. Need to research to see if they will grow here.

A couple more:

Spiderwort

Tall Ironweed

Bugleweed

Brad
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Okay, now I have some time to see everyone’s photos and post a couple. Deanna - Nice group of photos - I didn’t winter sow this year, I’d love to see what you do with the Clarkia later. That is a pretty winter scene. We were fortunate not to lose power too, but we barely had 5 inches of snow. Friends and family in NH lost their power overnight and then got it back by noon the next day, thankfully. They had almost 15 inches of wet heavy snow. Your crocus patch looks vigorous! Mine are a little anemic this year. That sunset is amazing - not just a few clouds coloring, but the whole sky! Cute cat…does it live outdoors? Sue, I guess you can tell where you have the most shade by where you still have snow left. Another patch of crocus that looks very vigorous! Love that! Your backlit Hellebore is so pretty! My foliage was pretty yellow when it first sprouted. Yours looks like it has large leaves. MGallica - LOVE the snowdrops! That is a lot of volunteers from a small planting. I just started planting snowdrops about 5 years ago and I was impressed by how much they reseed, so I decided last fall to add more in other areas. They came up fine but now I’ll have to wait to see them make a good showing. Here is the spread I had that was also from a very small amount of the original bulb… This Hellebore is always the first one up... Not a good day to try to get the crocus it's windy. This location is the only place in the garden I still have crocus. The critters ate a lot of different varieties of them. Not sure the name of the purple but it reseeds prolifically. I have a bed on the other side of the driveway from here that has only reseeded crocus from this bed. I don't know if you can see it but the rabbits were chewing on my Clethra this winter. They also chewed all the stems on a small Calycanthus so low I had to cut it back to the ground.
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PM, you remind me that I forgot to take pictures of Penstamon digitalis ‘Mystica ’. I grew it from seed two years ago and it has been so much more hardy and beautiful than I had thought it would. Here it is at the end of its bloom. It certainly survived last year with flying colors. We’ll see how it does if this year continues to be soggy. Right now this spot is a ”where am I going to put this” spot. I need to figure out a place to put that will really highlight how nice it is. PM, two shots of Lauren’s Grape, mostly self-sown. She’s dependable, I’d say! Silene armeria, Sweet William Catchfly, is a favorite reseeder. The flowers are beautiful, but the best thing is how it cooperates with neighbors. You can see from the second picture that at its base it has almost no clump at all, meaning it can happily sprout up amongst established plants, grow and bloom, and set seed, all while never really bothering or crowding anybody. It is a prolific reseeder, and always very welcome each year. It is a short-lived biennial, so it does not get out of control and reseeding is welcome. Had to go to Bristol, RI, this weekend for a kid’s regatta, and saw these hydrangeas beautifully performing in a decrepit historical building that seems to be about to undergo a historical renovation/rejuvenation. I love how their beauty stands out amongst the decay. Kind of like a picture of how life can be. Also, saw this deliberate planting of Gooseneck loosestrife, laughed, and had to take a picture of how it is now invading the plants next to it and branching out. It’s so deceptively sweet, until it’s not. Again, kind of like a picture of how life can be! Lastly, posted this grouping on Maria’s ”tea” post, but adding it here with the Ladies Mantle addition. Most of these plants are in pots waiting to be put out. Finally decided to use the golden ferns in a summer arrangement with a potting annual that was left over. Then I realized the potting annual was a perfect match for the astile, and the golden fern was a perfect match for the hostas, LM, and Dicentra ’Gold Heart’ foliage. I got a porch arrangement on the cheap for as long as the astilbe blooms, at least!
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Brad KY 6b
last year
More daylilies

Applique

Purple Riot

Lavender Frost

Belle Isle Sentry

Vintage Wine

Emperor Butterfly

a friend's seedling

Brad
cecily 7A
last year
Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b)
last year
@Brad KY 6b For whatever reason, I'm very unsuccessful with lupine! But I've found the peach-leaved bellflower to be very easy. Here's a better photo of it, it's taller in the spring flush but if you cut the flower spikes to the ground when they're done, you'll get a shorter flush after. I like your spiderwort, I have a pass along variety that thrives in shade, and this year I plan to add prairie spiderwort, a full sun variety that is native here.
Kristine LeGault 8a pnw
last year
Brad, gorgeous daylilies! What a wonderful variety of purples!

I have several new ones coming from Gilbert H Wild. It is so easy for me to go a little crazy when ordering. Lol
chris209 (LI, NY Z7a)
last year
@cecily 7A Very pretty! What is the tall purple-flowered plant in your first picture?

-Chris
cecily 7A
last year
Hey Chris, that's campanula glomerata. It's a thug (spreads aggressively by rhizomes) unless you mistreat it. The one pictured is thriving in a hot, very dry area with no supplemental water so I don't want to think about how fast it would spread in moist soil.
erasmus_gw
last year
The Peachleaved bellflower catches my notice also....I don't have much luck with campanulas but think this one has a reputation for being easier. Your climate and soil are very different than mine ( z 7a NC), Magpie, so I'd expect some things to be easy for you that aren't for me and easy for me that aren't for you. It's impressive how many plants you know to grow and grow well considering you say you haven't been gardening that long.

Feiy Lo, that lisianthus is such a pretty, saturated color. I'm trying nemophilas for the first time this spring. Seeds are up.

Brad, that Belle Isle Sentry is a beauty among beauties.

Midnight Blue is one of my best purple roses....it's so dark and purple and has a wonderful fragrance. Reblooms so well. Not very fussy. It's hard to capture the color.
erasmus_gw
last year
I grew the lupine from Russell lupine seeds. They were easy to sprout and grow. Grew them on in pots then planted in the ground in fall. They didn't last in my garden. I think it gets too hot here. There are lupines at Annie's Annuals that sound like they can tolerate more heat.
peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
last year
So many luscious purples. I especially like the deep saturated colour of many.

Aconitum napellus.

Allium senescens

Aster (because it is easier than Symphyotrichum) Purple Dome.

C. persicifolia

C. Pritchard's Variety rides the edge of blue/purple.

C. sarastro is firmly in the purple.

Clematis Multi-Blue is not well named, at least for me.

Hosta clausa

H. Goober
peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
last year

Iris s.

Iris s. Blue Butterfly. Another misnomer.

Iris s. Contrast in Styles

Lavender

Lupine

Nepeta

Salvia Caradonna with Nepeta behind.

Tradescantia Concorde Grape

Vernonia c. Mammuth
Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b)
last year
last modified: last year
Thank you, Erasmus. I appreciate that a lot! I've been gardening for 4 years so far, this coming season will be #5. I grow most of my plants from seed (with roses, clematis, bulbs etc. as the exceptions, plus a few more here and there) and that enables me to be able to afford to try a large variety of plants for my budget. (Though I shudder to think of what I've spent on seeds over the years). A large majority of seeds that I've tried to direct sow have failed, so it was a really helpful skill for me to learn how to successfully start seedlings indoors. Also I rarely duplicate plants so I am able to cram many different kinds in the space I have. My absolute lack of repetition and symmetry will ensure that my garden is never featured in a magazine 😅 I also basically never post photos of my many garden fails, of course!

Some more purple to stay on theme:
FrozeBudd_z3/4
last year
Don't recall the name of this dwarf phlox, but sure is a good one with a lengthy bloom period and rebloom.
Feiy (PNWZ8b/9a)
last year
erasmus, I got that Voyage 2 Blue from Johnny's and tried growing lisianthus from seed for the first time last year. It's a true purple that complements bright yellows and deep oranges in the garden. However, I don't think I'll try again. It takes forever to mature. I started growing indoors in early January and the first flower appeared in mid-August. Anything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Temperature, water, amount of sunlight, I mean anything. I started with 45 seeds and less than half of them survived to flowering. Damping off seemed to be a big problem during our long wet spring. It does need a higher temperature than I have, not too much water and a lot of sun. I think your climate is much better to give it a try. I also think afternoon shade would be nice if your summer temperatures are too high.

Also, I'm a big fan of Midnight Blue. It is not only fragrant and shade-tolerant, but also shows different shades according to the temperature. Its deep, velvety purple is always stunning in cooler weather. I've rarely heard of anyone liking it. So happy to find one!
erasmus_gw
last year
Peren.al, now those are some lupines! What a dream. I like the c. sarastro a lot. Looked it up...sounds like it could be happy here. Says it spreads slowly by rhizomes.
peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
last year
erasmus I do hope you find some Lupins that work for you. C. Sarastro is terrific. It is a very contained spreader, not a thug by any stretch of the imagination.
erasmus_gw
last year
I'm thinking arroyo lupine or some bush lupine might work here. I have never understood why Texas bluebonnets seem difficult outside of TX. It's plenty hot there. Seems they could adapt to NC. The Russell lupines I tried made a small show but much appreciated. Just can't expect them to get established here I guess. That's good to know about C. Sarastro. Do you find that some campanulas are easier than others? I grew Canterbury Bells successfully one year but another year the plants just melted away in the heat.

Feiy,

I grew lisianthus a long time ago from small plants bought, but I don't see them offered that much. Have looked at seeds but like you said, they sound like they take forever. Plants are getting so expensive...seeds are a way around that. I bought a few little hyacinths in tiny pots at Walmart a year or two ago ...they were $1 each. This year they're $1.39 each.
Brad KY 6b
last year
Mischievous Magpie, thanks for the info on lupine and peach-leaved bellflower. I will look for the latter.

erasmus_gw, Belle Isle Sentry is one of my favorites. It is the first to bloom, blooms very well, and reblooms at the end of the summer.

Brad
peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
last year
Yes erasmus Campanula Kent Belle is another really good one. It is a paler purple than Sarastro.

C. carpatica Blue Clips & White Clips are very short/compact with huge flowers relative to the size of the plant.

C. poscharskyana is another lovely one. It is a contained spreader that is never aggressive.

C. persicifolia has been shown here. It is another easy one. It comes in white as well.

There is one species of Campanula to run screaming from - punctata. I had Elizabeth and Cherry Bells. I have been trying to rid the garden of them for years. They are insidious. By the time you realize they have spread underground with horrid elastic roots that snap when you try to dig/pull them out. They will also spread by seed.

C. Kent Belle
Brad KY 6b
last year
Peren, I really like persicifolia. So pretty.

Brad
mxk3 z5b_MI
last year
last modified: last year
Phlox divaricata

Siberian Iris "Caesar's Brother":

Monkshood:

Geranium magnificum:

Aster:

Campanula glomerata:

Baptisia:

I've got lots more purple/blue, gotta snap more pics this year!
GardenHo_MI_Z5
last year
Favorite color here also, so I’m loving this thread...such beautiful pics!

Geranium Rozanne

Veronica Royal candles

Culvers root

Lilac and May night salvia

Campanula Poscharskyana

Lupine
erasmus_gw
last year
Beautiful additions. Thanks for more info on campanulas, Peren.all. Especially about the invasive one. Have had my eye on portenschlagiana I think it is. I will not give up on them and will try a few . Penstemon is another one that does not last long here. I want to ask librariangardener which of hers seem to tolerate more moisture.
peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
last year
mxk I would watch that Campanula glomerata. I used to like it before it became super aggressive by roots & seeds.
GardenHo_MI_Z5
last year
Peren I’ve got some also...so far so good. Here with geranium Johnson blue.
Brad KY 6b
last year
Such a great thread. Lots of flowers I didn't know of or didn't know the names of before this. And my favorite color to boot. I now need a bigger yard! Perhaps I can slip some in between my daylilies.

Garden-Ho, very nice Lilac and May night salvia and Lupine.

Mxk3, I like your Aster, Monk's Hood and Geranium magnificum. So Pretty.
peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
last year
Yep mine were good until they weren't. I have a real hate on for them now. I just wanted to give fair warning. Both you & mxk seem to have young ones but I'd bet if you dug you would see roots starting to spread where you don't want them, if not yet then soon. Save yourselves!! lol.
mazerolm_3a
last year
So many lovely pictures posted here!! Blue and purple are my favorite colors in the garden. Here are a few pics:
mxk3 z5b_MI
last year
I have such lupine envy...
Feiy (PNWZ8b/9a)
last year
I just found one picture of purple basil.
sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
last year
last modified: last year
I love all these purples! I think I may have to get some purple daylilies!!

I have plants that are supposed to be Purple but look more blue and supposed to be Blue but look more purple ...not sure who/how to post lol..blue or purple..it gets dicey :p
sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
last year
last modified: last year
King of Siam waterlily..supposed to be blue but is deep violet.

Spirit of freedeom can get very lavender or lilac

Plum Perfect

Lavender English Orpington hen..she's a good garden helper!

Like No Other

Tropical hibiscus lavender center

Mexican Petunia

JMG opening
sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
last year
last modified: last year
Purple Dahlia

Purple Hyacinth Bean

Reine de Violettes

Tropical Hibiscus standard I got on clearance at HD 14 yrs ago. It gets lavenders and greys and is irridescent in the light. The flowers are as big as someones head sometimes.

Amistad Salvia and Carpenter Bee

Lavender eggplant

Purple Japanese Morning glory..feathered type

Lavender Lady Passiflora

Lavender Crush

Stainless Steel
sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
last year
last modified: last year
Japanese Morning Glory

Liatris

Angel Face

Belotti Passiflora

Banana Flower deep purpley maroon on a cool fall morning

Royal Purple Bougainvillea

Quicksilver
GardenHo_MI_Z5
last year
last modified: last year
More to share.....

Echinops

Clematis

Veronica sunny border blue

Allium

Alium Millinium

Balloon flowers

Lots of my favorite salvia..Crystal blue

Up close with clematis

Delphiiums
L Clark (zone 4 WY)
last year
Dusky Challenger
L Clark (zone 4 WY)
last year
And I can't get lupine to grow either. It ticks me off!
Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b)
last year
A few more...

Verbascum

Columbine

Sweet pea
mazerolm_3a
last year
A few more:
41 North (Zone 7a/b, NE, coastal)
last year
last modified: last year

Native American Wisteria. I love this vine. Not aggressive here as are the Asiatic species.
forever_a_newbie_VA8
6 months ago
last modified: 6 months ago
@sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)

Following is the picture you posted earlier in this thread. I am wondering if the rose is Distant Drums? What a color! love it
jacqueline9CA
6 months ago
This iris - 'Crimson King' from the 19th century, is all over our garden. It was growing here when we moved in - I have moved some of them around, but did not buy any. Here they start blooming in mid winter (Dec/Jan) and into the late Spring. My FIL told me that his grandmother planted them originally, and called them "flags".

Jackie
sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
6 months ago
forever_a_newbie, Yes that is Distant Drums. I have three and I love them. They are great bloomers and disease resistant.
Rose Geek
6 months ago
I really like Blue for You.
Kristine LeGault 8a pnw
6 months ago
Rosegeek, I really love my Blue For You as well .
forever_a_newbie_VA8
6 months ago
sultry, thanks! it is great to hear DD is healthy for you. I read so much about its BS issue and nice to know it does good for some! Perhaps I will be one of the lucky people 😊

RoseGeek and Kristine, your Blue For You is so beautiful. I really wanted one, to the point that I bought some cuttings in ebay this summer (and Poseidons) at quite a cost and none rooted. Finally now I can admire others’ blooms happily without wanting one for myself any more 🌹
The Rose Geek
6 months ago
last modified: 6 months ago
Kristine, I want a few more this year. i love how frilly it is. 🥰 Foreveranewbi, I am so excited you will be able to buy one from Palatine this season. 🥰
Kristine LeGault 8a pnw
6 months ago

Charles De Gaulle

Blue for You

Lauren
rusty_blackhaw
6 months ago
Salvia "Amistad" remains a temperennial and sometimes hardy perennial favorite. Abundant growth and flowering over a long season.

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