Anthocyanins are naturally occurring pigments and they are the cause of purple pigments in plants. There are said to be over 500 anthocyanins. Anthocyanin production requires light, and sunny exposures will increase intensity of color; acidity affects it as well.

Whether through breeding or by mutations, purple-foliaged plants fascinate and draw attention to themselves. Gardeners often love them for both novelty and contrast. Add burgundy and deep red flowers and a rich tapestry is in the making. Despite red’s attribute of being visually dominant, once colors deepen they tend to recede from the field. Many dark red and purple flowers have contrasting accents of yellow and gold, and the color combo can be borrowed to heighten the effects of purples and burgundies in plant foliage. But bear in mind that too much can drain some of the mystery from a color arrangement that could be better suited to coupling with silvers.

Silver gray foliage is a subtle partner to the purples. It has more harmony of hue while playing off the contrast of light and dark between them. Silver foliaged plants often have a soft texture which adds to the drama, a perfect backdrop for the muted effects of pastels or bright displays of hot orange.

purple sand cherry

courtesy Great Plant Picks

• Physocarpus, Ninebark, ‘Diablo’
• Weigela florida ‘Wine & Roses’
• Sambucus ‘Black Lace’
• Cotinus coggygria ‘Velvet Cloak’
• Acer palmatum ‘Burgundy Lace’
• Malus sp. ‘Prairie Fire’ Crabapple
• Rosa glauca
• Berberis thunbergii ‘Rose Glow’

Perennials Offer an Innumerable Array

Since this is a favorite way plant breeders have of playing with plants, there are always purple leaved cultivars coming into the market. Just a list of the new Heucheras give you as idea of how exciting some of the choices are. These also are reaching into the copper and chartreuse tones, which make great companion colors for the purple leaf shades. So the heucheras rate high on my (and everyone elses) list.

Foliage colors, Euphorbia, Ninebark, and Sedum

My list of picks:
All those named above included-

• Ajuga reptans
• Eupatorium ‘Chocolate’, Joe-Pye Weed
• Euphorbia polychroma ‘Bonfire’
• Heuchera ‘Cappuccino’
• Salvia lyrata
• Sedum X ‘Mohrchen’
• Sedum ‘Purple Emperor’

The Annual Parade

If the perennial choices seemed endless… once you open the field to those plants which are grown only seasonally, not hardy in your area- well, I can’t very well write a book! But I can list some that I really enjoyed growing in my containers. Annuals grown mainly for their foliage look best in containers rather than in the ground, I think. Sometimes their colors are too gaudy for a Northern clime- but welcome as eccentric and exotic visitors in containers which we want to look bright and splashy.

I have to put in a word for the Coleus (now properly called Solenostemon) selections available. They have outstripped even the heuchera in the breeding fervor to produce scintillating foliage colors, many of them of such deep mahogany to almost appear black, often with the neat scalloping of a contrasting color. I have a new love affair with them this year. They also make great houseplants and are easy to start from a cutting in a vase of water.

My list of picks:

• Sweet Potato vine, Ipomea batatas
• Purple Fountain Grass
• Carex tenuiculmis ‘Cappuccino’, sedge grass
• Persian Shield, Stobilianthes dyeranus
• Oxalis purpurea
• Canna indica purpurea
• Coleus- too many to name
• Dahlia- ‘Roxy’, ‘Bishops Children’, ‘Redskin Mixed’, ‘Diablo Mixed’

Annual bed of foliage plants

• Geranium maculatum ‘Espresso’
• Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’
• Purple Haze Dahlia
• Dianthus barbatus Sooty

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing I’d like to say about using purple, mahogany, and burgundy leaved plants in your landscape design is that it can appear garish when using too many contrasts, and depressingly heavy when forgetting to brighten up all those deep leaf colors. Follow nature’s cue and provide wispy, light, accents and companions. Use the plants with an aim for subtlety in situation and in combination. Otherwise, treat your dark leaf plantings as a focal point: with confident intent and as a main feature (limited in number). Other than that, have fun- because the feeling that comes from playing with foliage effects is fun, exciting, and can produce some of the most satisfactory of your design efforts.

Not so important , but worth considering….
I haven’t included the names of specific cultivars within some plant choices, since many different offerings are on the market, but take a clue to look for the dark foliaged varieties in the plant named.

You probably realize that this is just a small sample of the plants available with this deep foliage color form. Keep your eyes open in the catalogs and plant nurseries for those you wish to incorporate into your garden plans. If you put them together with the important caveat mentioned, you will have spiced up your yard and set it apart from the usual. Remember that containers are an easy way to experiment with new ideas- their color lessons can be transposed to the larger beds and plantings of your yard.
You may be interested in these relevant posts:
Container Plant Recipes Part 1
Container Plant Recipes Part 2

More on Color Planning, including a sample garden plan with purple foliage.

Chemistry of Autumn Leaf Color from About.com

Tiger Swallowtail

Butterfly gardens are simply a collection of plants, butterfly friendly methods, and the addition of a few special features. Anyone can have one in any size space. The magic begins when the butterflies discover it, and come.

Butterfly gardens aren’t perfect gardens… they have some plants that you might otherwise ignore, some with holes in the leaves from being a host plant and having no pesticide barriers. Butterflies are insects, after all, and the pesticide will not distinguish between insects you love and those you abhor. But a butterfly area is one that is worth making not just for your own delight (and what is more delightful than a butterfly floating upon the air, or delicately sipping from a flower?), but for the general environment as well.

More About Butterfly Gardening… and some Monarch Butterfly facts

A Few Tips:

• Plant a variety of flowers instead of only one or two species
• The best color combination is yellow, mauve, or lavender flowers with a strong scent
• Note flowers in butterfly photos, like lantana and zinnias, to clue in on favored plants
• Butterflies like to perch on trees and shrubs
• Large rocks provide a resting and sunning spot

Because of the wild nature of some of the plants, and the natural way this type of garden would lend itself to a peaceful place of observation and meditation, consider making it in the further reaches of the yard, perhaps a neglected corner that now is reached by a path, or suggested path of a few stepping stones. With a seat of some type, and natural clumps of butterfly plants within a small grove of trees or flanked with some shrubs.

Perhaps a hanging Butterfly House on a shed wall with a trim of massed butterfly flowers below.

You might have some of the following visitors….

Ohio Butterflies

As a child I used to collect butterflies, but now that they are so rare in our gardens I don’t do that anymore. I love that people are now “collecting” with their digital cameras and preserving a record of this insect of gossamer and satin winged ornament without cutting short their lives. Some of the favorites were always the swallowtails.

Tiger Swallowtail
Males are the bright yellow butterflies with black tiger markings that light up my autumn clematis in late August. The females are sometimes darker. They like ‘Buttonbush’, Cephalanthus occidentalis, a shrub native to the US, and willows. [1]
Spicebush Swallowtail
Deeply colored, with the insets of bright blue on the plush black of the wings, it is reputed to be found only in the Eastern US and extreme southern Ontario. [2]. They eat the Sassafras tree leaves and those of the Lindera benzoin, a very choice native bush which is fragrant. Called ‘Spicebush’, the Lindera benzoin gives its nickname to the butterfly which feeds on it.

Black Swallowtail
The state butterfly of Oklahoma, these love the plants of the carrot family. Their black velvet wings inlaid with stained glass colors of yellow and blue are striking. Grow Queen Anne’s Lace, fennels, dill, and other plants of the Umbelliferae family.

Another favorite is this one and its mimic, the Viceroy.

Monarch
Ohio usually has a large number of these beautiful and striking orange and black butterflies. That is the icon of butterflies in this part of the world. I love them and keep the weedy milkweeds in the garden just for them. I also started growing the garden cousin Asclepsias tuberosa

Numerous common Butterflies…

We always have lots of Whites and Sulphurs, and I really can’t tell them apart, except for the basic color of bright yellow and whites. I call the whites, “Cabbage Butterflies” which is a tip off on which plants they love to eat. We also have the sweet little blue butterflies, the Azures. The one that usually catches my eye is the common Eastern Tailed Blue, which dines on the pea family… “yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis), alfalfa (Medicago sativa); various species of vetch (Vicia), clover (Trifolium), wild pea (Lathyrus), and bush clover (Lespedeza)” all of which grow in abundance in my yard and environs.

Make Your Yard Their Destination

Plants to plant:

Butterfly Plants

Suggested Garden Plan

butterfly garden (note shallow fountain in back)

For small yard or a specific area of a larger one.
Sunny Spot:
Center the garden plan with a landing station, perhaps a bubbler fountain within some large pebbles. Use smooth flattened rocks, like river pebbles. A space with a spectators bench, nearby. Surround with a flower bed rimmed at its edge with Phlox divaricata, Stokesia laevis and Oenethera speciosa. Mid height plants of Rudbeckia, Monarda, Sedum spectibilis, and Echinacea purpurea.  Backed with New England Asters and Buddleia. Site a nice large rock or two within the front of the border. This plan would be appropriate for a sunny spot.

Idea for shady spots:
Dogwoods, wild cherry, and redbud trees are good tree choices to surround your butterfly area.

Focal point of a large flat rock with depression to catch and hold water. Lindera benzoin shrub, surrounded with Chelone (Turtlehead), Lobelia cardinalis, and Aruncus dioicus. Underplant with violets, and Mertensia (Virginia bluebells).
Regular moisture is imperative for most of these plants.

Or these professional plans with pictures and plantlists! (PDF file)

Check out: Nature’s Foundry, ZSK-402, Universal Solar Pump Kit
Birds Choice Solar Powered Layered Waterfall Rock

D-I-Y Bubbler Fountain Directions for the moderately experienced.

*Resource for plants table, PDF