Garden Color: How to Landscape With Purple for Mood and Magic

Purple creates desirable garden moods — peaceful, romantic, inspiring. In color theory, it signifies knowledge, self-respect, spirituality, dignity, and wealth. In the landscape, it promotes inner calm and self-worth, providing refuge and creative inspiration. If you're drawn to violet, lavender, plums, and deep purples, here are five tips for weaving this hue into your yard.

1. Adopt a Color Strategy

Too much purple can backfire, but a single-color scheme works with enough variation. Light lilac catmint 'Walker's Low' and dark purple Salvia leucantha 'Midnight' create sufficient contrast to keep a planting from growing dull.

For a broader palette, choose an analogous scheme — neighboring hues on the color wheel. This front garden blends blue, violet, and purple with dwarf catmint (Nepeta mussinii), alliums, and purple salvia for soothing harmony.

Complementary colors (opposites on the wheel) energize each other. Fiery yellow punches up cool purple salvia with vibrant contrast.

2. Go Formal or Casual

Associated with both royalty and serenity, purple suits any style. Massed spiked flowers like salvia or Veronica create elegant formal beds.

Purple equally thrives in casual settings, as seen in this lupine meadow.

3. Think Beyond Plants

Add purple via painted trim, front doors, arbors, gates, or containers. A mix of energetic red and peaceful blue, purple bridges cool and warm schemes effortlessly.

A trio of purple — plants, a pot, a painted front door — greets visitors charmingly. Designer Margie Grace updates the "old-fashioned" notion of purple (lilacs, violets, irises, hydrangeas) with mod purple arbors.

4. Set a Mood

Lavender enhances inspiration and insight — ideal for contemplative gardens. Soft mauves and purples ease strong emotions, creating a haven (shown: Astilbe chinensis 'Visions' and hydrangea 'Endless Summer').

Purple makes a romantic gesture where clematis climbs a trellis as a privacy screen.

5. Don't Forget Foliage

Dark purple foliage makes superb accents. Ground covers like Setcreasea purpurea create purple swaths. The deep purple-black of bugbane (Cimicifuga ramosa) 'Hillside Black Beauty' strikes a foil against silvery eryngium and pink astilbe, with pale white fall spires.

Drought-tolerant gardens join in with purple-tinged succulents. Even shrubs like American beautyberry add delightful purple pops.