My daughter Michelle loves purple color. So we decide to build a purple garden for her. Any suggestion on this will be helpful. We want to grow them in front of our house. (it's the north side). It get afternoon sun, morning shade. There used to have a lot of overgrown shrub there. Here is the picture before.
Here is now.
Any one knows about any hardy purple Hydrangea?
Thanks,
Fang
My suggestions are: black knight butterfly bush, purple cone flowers, lavender beebalm, and lavender cosmos. I too love purple and have these as my favs. Lou
I would suggest some Blazing Stars (Liatris spicata) for the back border: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/86/index.html. It's also a good plant to get kids interested in gardening with because it puts on a really nice show and doesn't need much more than basic care.
-Greg
Iron weed, there are lots of salvias that are great, there are stunning Iris and Daylilies, Dames Rocket, Five Spot, Smoke Bush, Hardy Passion Flower Vine would be worth trying... Mitch
Purple form of Platycodon, 3-4';
minature form, 1-2';
Ruelia [wild Petunia];
Salvia 'May Night';
Iris, 'Caesar's Palace'
Russian Sage. This is usually a purple-blue color,
but I planted the purple form of Platycodon in front
and around the Russian Sage. Only the purple color
shows. Also, in front of the Russian Sage I planted
the light purple Rulia {Ruellia] and their colors match.
At either ends of the row lives Salvia 'May Night',
and the purple Iris, 'Caesar's Palace."
I suggest you add at least one other color to make the purple richer. Believe me you will get bored with just one color. White, pink or red are good offset colors.
I suggest
Salvia Blue Hills as it has blooms that last and last and last.
Campanula Glomerata - wonderful purple
Salvia East Freisland - intenst dark purple.
Monarda Praire night - wonderful dark purple but check to see if it is invasive in your area.
Veilchenblau rose
I love the (easy) liatris and I put in purple verbena bonarienses (an annual that reseeds itself) and the daisies for contrast for a fun July cottage garden that would attract a lot of butterflies and make the gold finches happy, too. Would go well with dispatcher's perennials, too. The salvias attract hummingbirds, if that is of interest, too...
The hydrangea would be lovely and easy maintenance. And white or purple clamatis is fun and easy.
Don't forget to put in some spring bulbs... Camassias come in blue-lavenders and whites and are easy maintenance. These might bloom in your area around the same time as Siberian Iris--another easy May bloomer in purple ranges. Along with peonies...
Also purple giant alliums for late May bloom are lots of fun and the neighbors will be sure to comment. These are bulbs, but generally return for a few years if they have good drainage. White Flower Farms has some pretty pics of the range available, but you can pic these up in October on close out sales at the big box stores, too. http://www.whiteflowerfarms.com/spring-bulbs-allium-to-fritillaria.html
The pic shows the liatris spikes, rudbeckia prairie sun...also some loosestrife morden gleam (which may be too invasive in your area)
What a fun project. Lots of possibilities! Good luck. t.
How about Veronica Sunny Border Blue or Royal Candles, columbines, baptisia, and aster for some fall color- ?
fangNJ, what a difference it made when the overgrown shrubbery was removed. Yoou have gotten lots of good ideas. Now be sure to show us more after photos. DonnaS
What a fun project! If your soil is neutral, and 'Endless Summer' hydrangea may be a good choice. In neutral soil the blooms are a watercolor wash of mauves, lavenders, blues and pinks all on one plant, which would be nice with all the purples. Some plants with purple foliage would be nice as well, like heuchera. For contrast I like silver leaved plants with purples to make the color pop. Lamium makes a pretty ground cover and there are purple flowering varieties. That would echo the color of the house to. A generous sprinkling of small spring bulbs like crocus, muscari, and iris reticulata would be a great way of defining the color scheme first thing in the spring. Phlox stolonifera 'Sherwood Purple' would be a lovely choice for spring and an amethyst shade of Phlox paniculata would be great late summer color(like 'Laura'). I think white would be pretty worked in throughout to. Happy planning and planting!
Thanks all. Wow, I didn't know there are a lot of choice of purple. So far we have Liatris and Astilbe. Here is my list:
Buddleia davidii 'Black Knight'
Hesperis matronalis (sweet rocket)
Platycodon grandiflorus "misato purple"
Salvia 'May Night'
Salvia "Blue Hills"
Campanula Glomerata
Salvia "East Friesland"
Allium giganteum
Baptisia "purple smoke"
purple columbine
Veronica spicata "Royal Candles".
Hydrangea
I think all of them should be hardy to my zone which is 6a, right?
I guess I will try to find out where to get them. Some I might be able to grow from seeds for the next year.
Thanks again.
Fang
This message was edited Aug 2, 2005 10:40 PM
Your plant list looks good, with blooms throughout the season. You may want to add some potted mums as you move toward fall, since only the bushes will be in flower by then. I would also suggest varying the foliage colors if you aren't going to add a contrasting flower color--perhaps some silver artemesia, lambs ears, blue fescue grass (a short little mound) or a few reddish plants. Some of the heucheras have reddish purple leaves, or you could plant one of the red ninebarks (Diablo--large, or Summer Wine--smaller), a red weigela, or purple sand cherry.
Here are all the perennial purple flowers I could think of:
Creeping Phlox subulata-Emerald Blue, very low growing ground cover with pine like needles with dense light lavender blooms in Spring Zone 2-9
Geranium Nimbus-Lovely lavender shade Zone 4-8
Lavender or Russian Sage-both have lavender flowers with silver green foliage
Monkshood- Aconitum napellus-beautiful purple flowers though poisonous Zone 4-8
Spiderwort-Tradescantia in many shades of purple Zones 3-9
Salvia Victoria Blue, many of the Salvia’s are purple
Stokesia laevis-Honeysong Purple Zone 5-9
Delphinium grandiflorum Blue Butterfly Zone 3-7
Clematis (climbing vine) Zone 3-9
Bulbs:
Dutch Iris
Beard Iris
Grape Hyacinth-Muscari
Hyacinthus Blue Pearl
Crocus
Fritillaria persica
Tulips
Gladiolus
I have some pictures of flowerbeds with a lot of purple in them I could send if you like.
Dee
You didn't mention how old your daughter is, but the tradescantia that Bareroots mentioned is neat for kids. They bloom early in the morning, and then the flowers dissolve. By mid afternoon, they're gone. The petals don't drop - they just disappear. If you watch very closely throughout the day, they shrink in the air.
Stacy
I have a "Lavendar Blue" bed on the northeast front corner of our house...Right now purple cone flower is in heavy bloom - I couldn't count all of the butterflies that were there at the same time. In with them are daylilies "Chicago Arnies Choice" and liatris "Blazing Stars". Sedum "Matrona" is a nice dark contrast, sedum frosty morn and autumn joy are also nice easy contrasts. Purple Salvia May Night and siberian iris (done blooming now, but good autumn foliage color) Caesar's Brother, and in the spring lots of grape hyacinth...Lily Cote d'azur. Lamium white nancy makes a good ground cover that contrasts beautifully and lasts most of the year......
Michelle, my daughter, she is 3. I will upload a photo once my husband emails one. (I am at work now).
Since my list is so specific, I guess it will take a while to collect them. I think I might have to mail order most of them. There is a nursery next to me called Well-Sweep Herb Farm. They have a lot of choice except the plants are pretty small. Maybe I will visit them in the fall to see what I can get from them.
As contrasting color, I am thinking about white and blue color.
Oh boy, I can't wait to see the garden when it's ready.
Fang
Here is her at July 4th bike parade.
One of the best silver plants for yound kids is lambs ears as it is soooo soft. They also have purple flowers. Also purple pansies are edible!
I"m kind of new at this, but the first thing that popped into my head was the 'dusty miller' plant as a contrast item. I have had great luck with them and they'd be a good thing to throw in just for a bit of 'lightness'
Cool idea to have a monotone garden though - perhaps I have a new project myself ;-)
and these are awesome plants! - heucheras
I have to agree with taramark,
I love this salvia: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/53540/index.html
I am really a beginner when it comes to gardening and this salvia has survived us! lol
We planted one plant last year and it came back so strong this year we 'attempted' to divide it. Well my hubby had a little trouble trying to split the root ball in 2 and pretty much chopped most of the roots off one of the sides. We went ahead and stuck both sides in the ground and just prayed...well they both survived and both need divided again. I would say this is one hardy plant! Not to mention I love the blooms. It seems to draw both bees and butterflies to a area where I had never seen them before. Looks like you have some great suggestions to choose from...purple is one of my fav's too!
I agree that Mainacht or May Night is one of my favorites as well. Salvias are great plants.
What a cutie! When my daughter was about that age we grew beans that have purple pods on the vine, but turn green when you cook them. She thought it was pretty cool. Your little doll might like those
Russian sage would give you the purple, as well as a dusty foliage.
