Purple flowers offer wide visual appeal, ranging from deep violet hues to soft lavender shades. This color is frequently sought after in garden design for its ability to create a sense of calm or drama. Understanding the names and needs of these blooms allows gardeners to select the best varieties for their specific landscape goals.
Popular Purple Perennials
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is a sun-loving perennial known for its aromatic flowers and foliage. Thriving in well-drained soil, this plant features silvery-green leaves and dense spikes of purple blooms, often massed along pathways to release its scent when brushed.
The Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is a native, daisy-like plant that attracts pollinators like butterflies. Varieties like ‘Magnus’ exhibit a rosy-purple color and tolerate heat and drought once established. These long-blooming flowers are hardy from Zones 3 through 9.
Perennial Salvia (Salvia x sylvestris) produces dense, upright spikes of rich purple flowers in late spring. Thriving in full sun and well-drained soil, it provides an excellent vertical accent for flower beds. Larger perennial shrubs like Lilac (Syringa) also offer deep purple color, with varieties like ‘Bloomerang Dark Purple’ reblooming later in the season.
Seasonal Purple Annuals
For continuous color until the first frost, gardeners frequently use purple annuals. Petunias, especially the spreading Wave varieties, produce abundant, funnel-shaped flowers in shades from soft plum to deep violet. They are widely used in hanging baskets and containers, where their stems can cascade.
Pansies (Viola wittrockiana) and Violas are cool-weather favorites displaying velvety, rich purple blooms early in the spring. These short-stemmed flowers are often used for mass plantings.
Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is a low-growing annual that forms a blanket of tiny, sphere-shaped flower clusters, often appearing in lavender or purple. This groundcover is valued for its honey-like fragrance and use as an edging plant. Verbena is an excellent annual option with long-blooming purple flowers, often trailing beautifully in window boxes and containers.
Purple Flowers for Shady Spaces
Areas that receive less than four hours of direct sun can still feature purple blooms using shade-tolerant varieties. Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana or New Guinea hybrids) are a common choice for filling dark garden spots, offering purple varieties that bloom profusely in low light. They provide a reliable splash of color in areas under trees.
Astilbe is a shade perennial known for its elegant, feathery plumes of deep purple or red-purple flowers in mid-summer. This plant prefers consistently moist, humus-rich soil and is ideal for woodland gardens.
Hosta plants, known for their large foliage, produce delicate, bell-shaped flowers on tall spikes in midsummer. These blooms are soft lavender shades and add a vertical element to the shaded bed. Lungwort (Pulmonaria) is an early spring bloomer whose flowers often shift from pink to purple or blue as they mature, thriving in partial to full shade.