Purple perennial flowers freshen up your garden with popping color and require effortless maintenance steps to stay healthy. Whether the plant stays along the fences, in the rock garden, or flower beds, there is a suitable plant for every purpose.
This article will learn the steps to plant and care for perennial plants with purple flowers. This guide covers the essential details, from preparing the planting spot, selecting the types of plants to methods for preserving your garden.
How To Plant Perennial Flowers
There are 5 steps for creating your garden of purple perennial flowers:
- Step 1: Understand the planting conditions.
- Step 2: Decide the color scheme.
- Step 3: Choose the right perennials.
- Step 4: Plant your flowers.
- Step 5: Maintain beautiful blooms.
Understand The Planting Conditions
The Best Time To Plant Perennials
For most perennials, spring is the best season to encourage plants’ growth. There should be adequate sun exposure, and the soil should have a balanced moisture level.
These conditions are excellent for sprouts and strong roots. Spring rain is also a great natural resource for plants with high moisture needs.
Fall is the ideal time if you are aiming to have the beautiful flower in early spring or summer. In warmer weather, you can use mulches to preserve the moist ground.
Soil Quality
While perennials grow quickly on various soil types, from clay, loam, to chalk, the quality is determined by the pH level.
In general, the ideal pH range for the home garden is from 6.0 to 7.0. Perennials give an abundance of blooms at a deep, rich shade at 6.5.
Measure the pH in your soil at room temperature before starting the garden. If the acid level is high, use pulverized limestone or dolomite limestone to bring the soil back to a neutral state.
On the other hand, if you’d like to acidify the soil, add natural compost such as coffee grounds.
Bloom Time
Perennials normally bloom for 2 weeks each year. Depending on the type, this duration can last up to 3 months.
Choosing up to 3 or 4 varieties with different bloom times is a good practice to help you have a beautiful garden all year round. Prioritize plants that give flowers in spring so you can spend the rest of the year pampering them.
Decide The Color Scheme
Do you prefer a monochromatic garden design or a harmony of colors? Purple perennials come in a wide range of tones, which you can grow for versatile landscaping purposes.
The easiest method for beginners is creating a pastel garden. Artistic gardeners would love to experiment with contrast with hot colors or blend different shades of purple.
Colors play a great role in creating the atmosphere. For example, an indigo flower bush fits well by the swimming pool for a relaxing view, or bright Hydrangea makes welcoming vibes at the front door.
Choose The Right Perennials
Short Purple Flowers
Hyacinth
Alternatively known as Miss Saigon, these tiny purple flowers are popular for versatile use in the garden. Flower beds, containers, landscape rocks are variations this plant can fit in.
Hyacinth adapts to loam, chalk, and clay soil, including acidic and neutral pH levels ranging from 6.0 to 7.0. The flowering season is mid-spring.
These flowers demand full exposure to the sun or partial shade. In high temperatures, make sure the soil has enough moisture level to avoid withered roots.
Aster ‘Wood’s Purple’
Aster creates a stunning effect for the garden with a vigorous pop of purple. The tiny purple flowers form bright dots all over the landscape.
This plant is perfect for garden paths, but you can try planting a carpet of showy flowers if you have a spacious garden. These daisy-like purple flowers are also butterfly magnets, the best companion for pollination.
Aster ‘Wood’s Purple’ grows well on sand-based, acidic, or neutral soil with full or partial sun exposure. You can expect the flowers to appear in late summer and last until mid-fall.
Creeping Thyme
This summer flower is suitable for both lining the pathway and decorating the rock garden. Creeping Thyme provides a rich magenta color to liven up the surroundings.
The perennial plant thrives in neutral soil and has a high drought-resistant level. To have healthy roots and vivid blooms for months, choose the position with direct sunlight and a balanced moisture level.
Medium Purple Flowers
Bearded Iris
This perennial is amongst the most accessible options to grow and maintain. Its light purple flowers make an excellent choice for an informal perennial garden. Other purple varieties, such as Black Swan with the deepest purple shade, make a decorative cover for the fences.
Loam and sandy soil provide nurturing conditions for Bearded Iris. Well-drained soil with acidic or neutral pH levels between 6.0 and 6.8 can grow strong roots.
Manhattan Lights’ Lupine
Lupine’s rich purple color harmonizes well with the yellow hue to create an eye-catching contrast.
These multi-colored flowers energize the garden and attract lots of butterflies. Each plant can be maintained in a perennial shrub and grow up to 3 feet tall in a sunny location.
Since this perennial plant requires minimal effort to grow, it is a good choice for busy people who want to maintain a garden.
Lupines grow in sandy soil with pH levels from 6.0 to 7.2. Early or mid-fall is an excellent time to plant Lupine and enjoy purple spring flowers.
Clustered Bellflower
These violet flowers blend well with lush green foliage along the fences. An alternative method is planting mixed flower beds for the centerpiece of your garden.
Bellflowers require a sunny garden or partial shade with acidic or neutral soil. The flowering season starts from late spring to early summer.
Tall Purple Flowers
Wisteria
Wisteria is the most popular choice in Japan. This plant forms curtains of flowers surrounding your garden or climbs the walls of your house. The elegant tall purple flowers add a royal aesthetic to the patio for a quiet, relaxing time.
Wisteria stands at 30 feet tall with moderate requirements for sun exposure. A special factor about this flowering plant is the ability to grow in all soil types with a pH range of 6.0 to 7.0.
Sprinklers are great for aiding the growth rate, which ensures the colorful flowers go into full bloom from late spring to mid-summer.
Hydrangea
We’d highly recommend you plant hydrangea in the form of a large bush with purple flowers.
Starting from mid-summer throughout the fall, the petals will gradually go through gradient shades from light to dark purple flowers. This effect gives a new look to your garden while inviting many butterflies to add to the lively atmosphere.
Make sure the planting soil has a low pH level of 5.2-5.5 to encourage growth. As this plant grows well in long hours of sun, the gorgeous blue-purple blooms can decorate the hedges, garden pond or have an excellent cut flower to bring nature to your home.
Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea grows its vines at a fast pace, which requires a solid base to climb. Otherwise, it can thrive as far as covering the entire ground. The pergola or house walls are strong enough to hold the vine walls.
The bright petals add a lively touch to the landscape. Since Bougainvillea needs to stay in the sun throughout the day, the natural light enhances the beauty of these colorful flowers.
Mid-summer until fall is the blooming season. However, this plant is only suitable for acidic soil.
Here are 37 purple perennial flower you can plant them and enjoy them forever:
Plant Your Flowers
Choose The Best Spot In The Garden
It is ideal to choose where the sprinkler can reach to moisten the soil, an essential factor to keep the plants healthy. A good moisture level also encourages beneficial bacteria to grow.
The next factor to consider is the sun exposure level. While some plants require total sun exposure, other species may bloom when they stay in partial shade.
Prepare The Location
Use a shovel to dig a wide enough hole to give room for the roots to settle quickly that has a shallow depth to avoid crown rot.
An excellent method to determine the size you need is to measure it based on the pot. The hole can be twice as wide as the pot with the same width.
When you have finished digging the hole, cover the entire surface with 1 inch of compost. Pat the compost evenly to create a layer that provides nutrients without blocking the water flow.
Move Plant To The Spot
You can acquire 3 forms of plants before transplanting them to the garden:
- Potted plants: This is the type that grows in containers you can easily find at the store. The steps for transplanting are simple.
Gently pull the roots out of the soil at a slow pace and place them in the center of the hole. As you cover up the hole, make sure the roots are protected to limit diseases.
- Bare-root perennials: These plants usually come in a dormant state; therefore, you will need to soak the roots in water for 1 hour before moving them to the ground.
Spread the roots evenly and make sure the soil holds them in place to help stabilize the stems. Bare-root perennials require extra care in the first few weeks in the garden.
- Seeds: The process of pampering the seeds requires a long time and patience. If you are starting a garden with only seeds, then start by growing them indoors in the winter.
In this way, you can move them to the garden in the early spring days to have blooms in the right season.
Maintain Beautiful Blooms
Water
The healthy water quantity for perennials is half a gallon per week, including rainwater. To help plants thrive, it is best to pour water directly into the roots.
If you don’t have time to carry the water cans through the entire garden, you may want to set up the sprinklers to keep moist soil. An ideal schedule is letting the sprinklers run every day for the first 2 weeks.
After that, keep the sprinklers on for deep watering once or twice weekly. Adjust the hose so the water reaches the entire area around your plants, not just the spots with flowers.
The rain gauge helps you identify the natural source the plants already have, then adjust the watering system accordingly to avoid overwatering or leaving the plants dry.
The best time for watering the plants is in the early morning. Even if you accidentally have water on the leaves during this time, it will evaporate when the sun is up. Dry leaves are mildew resistant and prevent diseases.
Another optimal time is the early evening before nightfall, which gives enough time for excess water to evaporate.
Fertilizer
For newly planted perennials, use half the manufacturer’s dosage of fertilizer once in the warm spring. When your plants are fully grown, change to using the indicated dose on the package once or twice a year.
Fertilizers with low nitrogen and high phosphorus levels are an excellent choice for enhancing the blooming process. If you prefer organic fertilizer, fish emulsion, banana peels, or eggshells are great alternative options.
In the summer or dry climate, keep mulch on the top of the soil to retain moisture and prevent weeds. The materials for mulch are easily found around your house, including dry grass or leaves, spent flowers, and small barks.
Winter Care
When the plants go dormant in the cold winter, the maintenance steps are reduced to only warmth and water supply.
Cover the roots with dry compost to prevent the frozen ground from harming your plants. As for the water supply, make sure you provide it once every 4 or 6 weeks.
Extreme frost at temperatures lower than -20 degrees Fahrenheit brings more difficulties for gardeners. In this case, you can start by clearing out the snow and use micro foam blankets as the ground cover.
Approximately 3 to 4 layers of blankets are sufficient to protect the ground in the winter months.
Conclusion
Overall, perennials can fit well in most landscape designs. We hope this guide can accompany you in planting elegant purple perennial flowers in your home garden.
The vivid, energizing shades also attract lots of butterflies for your beautiful garden all year round. Plus, these purple flowers are easy to plant and care for, even if you don’t have a green thumb.
