Van Dycks

Remember when the very idea of the color purple was like a bad word? Go to school in purple socks and risk getting laughed off the playground. It was a color that was almost as good as a laugh line.

But purple has changed. According to the color industry it's going to be this year's fashion color - so if having your garden coordinated with your wardrobe is important, better start planting purple things.

But, kidding aside, why has purple gone from being an outcast to "this year's color?"

I'm not sure about home decorating or fashion, but I do know that in gardening purple is a wonderful color - a chameleon that looks pretty with pastels, beautiful with bright and dramatic with the darks. There is almost nothing that it won't work with.

I can remember before I had the garden space to experiment with, I used to sneer at the tastelessness of people who combined purple and orange - until I saw a combination of bright orange California poppies combined with deep purple iris. The combination was stunning - which shouldn't be surprising. Purple and yellow are opposites on the color wheel - and it's only a short move over to orange - they are practically complimentary colors. Of course, looking at the color wheel you can see that a blue-purple is best with an orange-yellow because they, too, are opposites on the color wheel.

I was even more surprised to see a garden absolutely stunning in purple and red. This time the purple was a red violet and the red was pure, bright red - take a look at any burgundy foliaged, red-flowered canna such as Ambassador (Black Knight) and you'll see exactly what I mean. Actually, I discovered this combination when I saw deep purple iris and blazing red poppies growing together - their period of bloom overlapped only briefly but they were a knockout combination in early summer. Mix a Siberian Iris like 'Steve' or 'Vi Lunn' or 'Ruffled Velvet' with Papaver 'Brilliant' or P. Turkin 'Louise' and you'll see what I mean. Extend the bloom season with Callafornia® Calla lilies such as 'Flame', and mix in some giant phlox - 'Tenor' in scarlet and 'Nicki' in deep violet purple would stunning if you included some white to intermingle with the deeps and brights.

But there is no need to go for high drama in the garden beds. I'm really a pastel person - I love the idea of heading to the garden to chill out - which means restful colors. One possibility here that I enjoy is using purples with pale blues - nothing is more restful than blue, and the combination makes the blues seem softer and the purples seem bluer. Take one look at the Siberian Iris 'Steve' - it is living proof of what a happy combination these colors make. Try Corydalis 'China Blue' with a deep purple Aconitum for an unusual, cool and restful combination.

Try blue-purples with yellow and you have a foolproof recipe for success. Try the lovely Geranium platypetalum along with drifts of Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam' for a combination that is soft and striking - and which will bloom all summer. In late spring and early summer combine it with Trollius Cheddar for a lemony lift to the color scheme, then let Hemerocallis'Happy Returns' fill in with its lemon yellow trumpets for the rest of the summer. For late summer drama add some Agapanthus 'Pinocchio', 'Purple Parasols' Stokesia and perhaps silvery foliaged Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) to create a misty effect for a restful but striking picture. The Perovskia blooms in pale lavender blue - and pale blue is also striking combines with purple.

In fact, about the only color that I don't think purple can hold it's own with very well is pure white -and that is only because it seems somewhat funereal when the two are paired alone. But add a dash of pink, red, gold or yellow and the garden becomes a symphony. Purple recedes; it creates a background for other colors without really clashing with any of them; along with white it is a great color to help bring together what could otherwise be clashes in the color scheme.

And as the great neutral let us not forget plants with purple leaves as a way to create garden excitement even when nothing is flowering. For instance, Cimicifuga atropurpurea has brown purple foliage and creamy white flowers that come in Fall. Imagine it, even out of bloom, paired with pale apricot blooms of Hemerocallis 'Double Dream' or H. 'Siloam French Doll'. For shadier situations, try it with a chartreuse hosta like Sum and Substance for a cool chocolate-mint kind of look.>

I love to create quietly colorful spots in the border with purple foliaged Oxalis triangularis, perhaps mingled with a small pale pink geranium like G. pratense 'Striatum' and some silvery foliaged plants such as Artemisia Schmidtiana (Silver Mound) and the steely silver-blue Eryingium alpinum. Or go for excitement with G. cinereum 'Splendens' in bright fuchsia with a dark eye. You can use really HOT colors with purple foliage and they never overwhelm.

SO forget any old notions you may have had about purple as a strange color and start thinking of it as one of the new neutrals of the garden - a color that can help cool down hot spots or add drama to pallid ones. I guarantee, your garden will never look the same again - and it will certainly look more exciting.