This year’s Chelsea show gardens featured a dominant color scheme: sultry and dusky purple, often paired with verdigris turquoise, complementary peach, or shades of grey. The color added instant sophistication to the planting, making it a popular choice among designers.
Purple Foliage Plants
Rosa glauca, a single-flowered species rose, was a standout plant in this palette, attracting pollinators with its vivid pink flowers and clusters of small red hips. Its dusky purple-blue foliage was a major draw for gardeners, and it was often paired with other purple-foliage plants like Verbena ‘Bampton’.
Rosa glauca is easy to grow, requiring full sun and well-drained soil. It doesn’t need regular pruning, but thinning out the oldest branches every couple of years will keep the shrub healthy. Patrick Clarke paired Rosa glauca with Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’, a filigree-leaved black elder with inky purple leaves and contrasting pink flowers.
Easy-to-Grow Shrubs
Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’ is another easy-to-grow shrub, happy in sun or dappled shade and fertile soil. It can be pruned quite hard to keep it within a certain size, and pruning it back hard will result in the largest and darkest foliage. Arit Anderson used Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ in her garden, a deciduous shrub with purple-red foliage and rounded clusters of creamy white flowers.
Physocarpus is a straightforward shrub to grow, with a neat habit and ultimate height of around 2.5m. It’s great at the back of a border, but a more compact variety like ‘Little Devil’ can be used for smaller spaces. The colourful foliage makes a great component in flower arrangements, and the shrub is pretty problem-free, not suffering from many pests and diseases.
Melanie Hick used a little purple ajuga as ground cover, and plants like Paeonia ‘Kopper Kettle’ and Polemonium ‘Bressingham Purple’ offer stunning purple foliage and flowers. These plants can be used to create a cohesive and sophisticated look in any garden.
For those looking to incorporate the dusky purple trend into their garden, there are many plants to choose from. By combining these plants with other complementary colors and textures, gardeners can create a unique and beautiful space that showcases the elegance of purple foliage.
Leave a Reply