9 purple flowers for a mysterious enchanted garden

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Hanging fragrant panicles of wisteria, elegant violet cups on abutilon, clumps of tiny purple pearls on callicarpa: violet runs through shrubs, climbing plants and perennials alike. Set beside white, it turns a garden mysterious and elegant — as long as most of these plants get the sun and the free-draining soil they ask for.

Shrubs, climbing plants and perennials, here is our selection of violet-blooming plants for your outdoor garden. Discover:

• A yellow garden
• A red garden
• More garden colors

The nine purple-flowered plants at a glance

Shrubs, climbers and perennials are gathered here so you can see when each one turns purple and where it belongs in the garden. Pick the ones whose season and position match your plot.

Combining a spring climber, a summer perennial and an autumn-fruiting shrub keeps purple in the garden for most of the year.

3 purple-flowered shrubs

Abutilon

• Variety: Abutilon suntense ‘Violetta’
• Blooming: large violet flowers forming elegant cups from late spring to early summer.
• Leafage: evergreen green-gray leaves with 2 to 5 tooth-edged lobes.
• Planting: from early spring to Mayor from early autumn to mid-autumn.
• Placing: only for mild climate regions. Suitable for flower beds, edges, or as a standalone.

Hardy down to 20-25°F (-5°C), this is best grown in pots to bring indoors for Winter wherever the climate is cold.

Callicarpa

• Variety: Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Imperial Pearl’
• Fruit: Fruits are what’s showy for this plant, not flowers! Bears beautiful clumps of tiny purple pearls from mid-autumn to midwinter.
• Leafage: deciduous deep green oval leaves with fuzz on the underside. In Fall, leaves turn yellow to purple in color, shifting through red and orange.
• Planting: from early spring to late spring or from early autumn to late autumn.
• Location: hardy down to 5°F (-5° Celsius), Callicarpa looks great as part of a mixed hedge, a standalone, in shrub beds and even containers.

Hibiscus syriacus

• Variety: ‘French Cabaret Purple’
• Blooming: violet double-flowered pompoms that seems crumple up from late summer to mid-autumn.
• Leafage: deciduous deep green leaves with three lobes, typical of most Hibiscus species.
• Planting: from late winter to late spring or from early autumn to late autumn.
• Location: ideal for shrub beds, containers, and for shaping into eye-catching hedges. Find a place that drains very well with soft soil, either in full or part sun.

3 climbing vines with purple flowers

Clematis

• Variety: Clematis x viticella ‘Supernight’
• Blooming: simple violet flowers with a deeper-colored streak along the center of each petal. Blooming from early summer to early autumn.
• Leafage: deciduous trifoliate elliptical leaves, deep green in color.
• Planting: from early spring to late spring or in early autumn to mid-autumn.
• Location: along a wall, a pergola, a barrel or treillis.

Clematis loves having its head in full sun and its feet in cool shade in moist, rich and well-draining soil.

Wisteria

• Variety: Wisteria sinensis
• Blooming: large hanging fragrant panicles that range from violet to indigo in color, in mid-spring.
• Leafage: deciduous leaves with oval leaflets along a stem (the petiole).
• Planting: from late winter to mid-spring or from early autumn to late autumn.
• Location: atop a wall, pergola, barrel composition or treillis. Place it in the sun, with well-draining soil that is lightly acidic. Avoid chalky soil.

Solanum

• Variety: Solanum dulcamara
• Blooming: fronds with small star-like purple flowers that appear from early summer to early autumn.
• Leafage: deciduous leaves with three green lobes.
• Planting: from early spring to late spring or, again, in mid-autumn to late autumn.
• Location: stems twist around any type of fence or lattice. Also good for shrub beds or to run along other hedge trees.

3 violet-flowered perennials

Lavender

• Variety: Lavandula angustifolia
• Blooming: perfume-like smelling fronds of flowers that bees love, presented atop a long gray-green stem.
• Leafage: small, narrow leaves that are also very fragrant. Evergreen, and gray-green in color.
• Planting: from mid-spring to early summer or in early autumn to mid-autumn.
• Location: flower beds, pots, to form edges or to populate a rock garden. Soil should be light, poor, well-drained and in full sun.

Garlic

• Variety: ‘Purple Sensation’
• Blooming: firework-like umbels where each streak ends with a tiny purple star-shaped flower.
• Leafage: clump of soft green straight leaves.
• Planting: plant the bulbs anytime from early autumn to late autumn.
• Location: full sun, in draining soil that is more on the dry side. Ornamental garlic is always a stunner in flower beds, rocky terrain and in pots.

Bellflower

• Variety: Campanula muralis
• Blooming: from late spring to midsummer, thousands of tiny star-shaped bells create purple cushions you just want to lay your head down on!
• Leafage: small green evergreen leaves, a bit fuzzy and serrated along the edges.
• Planting: Late winter to late spring or early autumn to late autumn.
• Location: edges, rocky terrain, forest undergrowth, ground cover, seaside, pot. Bellflower loves sun and properly draining soil, even if dry.