Plants with Purple

Today Southern Gardening is in the trial gardens at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs, MS admiring some beautiful plants with purple color. Plants with purple color have some of the most beautiful and unique flowers in the world. Mexican Bush Sage is prized by gardeners for its showy purple flower spikes that are produced in late summer until first frost. This evergreen shrubby perennial typically grows 4 to 6 feet tall and wide. Its very attractive, bicolor flowers consist of soft purple sepals that create a contrast to the white flowers. Another plant with purple is the Mexican petunia. Its branches rise from the ground with woody-based purple stems covered with elongated, linear, willow-like, dark green leaves that are often tinged with purple. Tubular, trumpet-shaped, 5-lobed, petunia-like, purple flowers bloom from the upper stems in loose clusters. Lastly, First Edition Flip Side Vitex, also known as chaste tree, is showing out with its 8-inch long panicles of tiny, fragrant, purple flowers that attract butterflies and other beneficial pollinators we want and need in the landscape. It’s also a strong rebloomer. Flip Side® got its name because the greyish olive-green leaves are dusky purple on the undersides of the leaves. It is a very cool flowering tree with unique coloration that draws attention in the landscape. As you can see, plants with the color purple can add beauty and charm to your landscape summer through fall. I am Eddie Smith, and I will see you next time on Southern Gardening.