This June planting of purple pom-pom alliums with aquilegia ‘Nora Barlow’ makes a bold, striking impact. Circles are a motif often used in garden design, perhaps to distract the eye in a long narrow suburban garden. At Jardin, we often complement circular hard landscaping by repeating this shape in the planting such as these alliums and box spheres.

Blue is a much sought after colour in the border, but purple is a very good mixer too and has the advantage of adding more warmth, being a product of red and blue.

Some of my favourite purple plants, and this is always being added to, are:

French lavender – lavandula stoechas

French lavender, sometimes known as butterfly lavender, originates in the Mediterranean and likes hot, dry situations in the garden.

The ever popular allium, bursting forth in early summer. Alliums are closely related to edible onions.  Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’, begins the show and has a lovely deep colour, but there are a number of varieties to try; plant the bulbs in autumn for an early summer explosion. The nectar-rich flowers are attractive to bees.

The showy Liatris spicata, with its bright green grass-like foliage and rich purple bottlebrush type flowers, is an American native. Dought tolerant and attractive to butterflies.

Penstemons are really reliable late-flowering perennials and come in many shades of purples and pinks. One of my favourites is Penstemon ‘Raven’.

The tall Verbena bonariensis weaves its magic in a border – tall but not dominant, quite airy really and doesn’t need staking. Its long-lasting flowers are very attractive to bees and butterflies.

The fleeting beauty of purple poppies.  Watch this space as we add more purples we are passionate about….