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The Color Purple

© Carol Wallace

My neighbor is a sucker for anything with purple foliage. She doesn't care if it is annual, perennial or even terminally invasive. If it's purple, she wants it. As a result, when her purple perilla took off this summer and overwhelmed everything but the white Nicotiana alata her yard looked like it was decorated for a funeral. Excess can look - well - excessive.

Nevertheless, the mavens of fashion in clothing, home interiors and gardening swear that this year, purple is in. While this may be bad news for people with sallow complexions, it is really great news for the garden.

Purple is one of those colors I used to make fun of as a child - kind of like orange (which the fashion mavens also swear is in.) There is something vaguely amusing about the idea of purple as a fashion color (although it seems more acceptable if you call it "Mountain Violet", or "Royal Amethyst."). But pair it with silver, or gold, pale pink, ice blue, deep blue, lilac, yellow, green - even red or orange - there is really very little in the way of plant life that purple (in moderation) doesn't look good with.

Purple is actually a great neutral. You can think of it as basic black for the garden. Most of the plants that are touted as being "black plants" are actually a deep, deep purple. Viola 'Molly Sanderson,' "Queen of the Night' tulip, and even Black Mondo grass (although the latter sure seems coal black to me!)

My mom always told me that black goes with everything. Purple, to my surprise, seems to work the same way.

I can remember sitting around with a gardening friend, laughingly bad-mouthing those poor misguided souls who planted purple and red together. I guess neither of us had seen it in reality. The first time my "Carmencita' castor bean bloomed along with a burgundy leafed, red flowered canna, I was hooked.

And then I saw a picture on the cover of a daylily book that stunned me. It was all the colors I might use if I was trying to paint a verbal picture of a really ugly garden. Red, purple and gold daylilies all in a mass. It was gorgeous.

That gold and red combo alone would not have done it for me. Red paired with gold always reminds me of a fast food restaurant. But add that diplomatic touch of purple and you have a symphony.

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