Keep in mind that purple is a dark hue that can easily be lost if it’s any distance from the viewer it is best kept up close where it can be appreciated. Following a few guidelines, however, will help you maximize the mood you’re trying to achieve. Purple is so versatile that it combines easily with most colors. Earth tones work well with muted dusky purple, which is purple blended with brown. Blend pastels with the purple tints of lavender or lilac. Mix jewel-toned colors with royal purple, for example. The rule of thumb for fail-safe color combinations is to keep hues of similar intensity together. Purple and yellow. Golden daylilies ( Hemerocallis cv.) illuminate the luxurious dark purple of a Siberian iris ( Iris cv.). It makes sense to understand purple and its variations in order to include it in the garden in ways that yield its fullest potential. Nature seems rather stingy with true purple-there are no purple roses, peonies, or daylilies, for example-yet some gardeners just can’t get enough of the color. Black darkens it into a shade and deepens its complexity, adding mystery. White cools the hue into the sublime and safe pastel range-the lilacs and lavenders. Purple and red. A dazzling duo of red ‘Blaze’ rose ( Rosa ‘Blaze’) and purple Jackman clematis ( Clematis ‘Jackmanii’) illustrates how each color asserts the other.Īdding white or black to purple expands the color to new realms. Still more red yields magenta, which is often misnamed purple. When more red is added to the purple mix, the product is violet. When the purple mix is heavier on the blue side, the resulting color leans toward indigo. In the human world of color wheels and light, it is easy to know purple as one of three secondary colors and the product of the equal mixing of the primary colors red and blue. Fokker’) with purple heart ( Tradescantia pallida ‘Purple Heart’). A mix of blue and red Purple and blue. A cool mood is created by combining the blue of a poppy anemone ( Anemone coronaria ‘Mr. Botanical confusion continues: Violets are purple, not blue, despite what the nursery rhyme tells us lavender usually blooms purple, although other colors are now available and lilac, while true to its name, is still called “common purple” in the nursery trade. I have a difficult time saying “purple” coneflower, always calling it “pink” instead, which it is. Red cabbage and red onion call attention to the misnomer whenever I cut them up in the kitchen, for they are variations of purple. Let’s face it, purple-leaved plum is burgundy. Still more are labeled something else when they truly are that color. Many things in the natural world are oddly called purple when they are not. ‘Dark Star’ coleus ( Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Dark Star’). Persian shield ( Strobilanthes dyerianus). Despite the color’s popularity in song titles and cultivar names, there continues to be a lot of confusion about what is or is not purple, as well as the best way to include it in the garden. Jimi Hendrix made a deeper horticultural impression with the song “Purple Haze,” which is a cultivar name for plants in at least 10 genera.

Today, purple is the favorite color of many, including myself and the artist lately known again as Prince, whose song title “Purple Rain” has also become the name of a cultivar of Salvia verticillata.

Scarcity earned it a regal quality, as only kings and queens could afford to possess this color in carpets, tapestries, and clothes. Purple is a hue both rare and renowned in natural and human history.

Yellow and purple flowers