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| Photo Credit: Lane Greer |
| Red castor bean is easy to grow from seeds. Another option is to plant it early in a greenhouse and bring it out once the soil has warmed. |
Purple is my favorite color, and it's been the color of royalty 4,000 years. I'm always looking for ways to add a bit of this color to my garden, and there are many lovely ways to do it.
While lots of plants offer purple flowers, purple foliage is something else. Most purple foliage isn't really purple - it's more of a reddish-black or bronzy brown-purple. There are several trees with purple foliage, such as purpleleaf plum, red Norway maple and purple smoke tree, that offer great color year after year. But there are also some great purple-leafed annuals that you can use to give your garden that royal feeling. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Lane Greer | | Persian shield has intensely purple new leaves, which fade to silvery lavender tones. |
Of all the purple-foliaged annuals, Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) may have the most truly purple leaves. Although it produces lavender flowers, it's really grown for its attractive iridescent purple leaves, which grow about 6 inches long and fade to metallic silvery and lavender-pink tones. The plants reach about 3 feet tall and wide. It's important to plant Persian shield in part shade because plants wilt quickly and too much sun causes foliage to fade. I like to combine it with New Guinea impatiens with hot pink flowers.
The reddish-purple leaves of red castor bean (Ricinus communis) can grow as large as 3 feet across! The plants grow very fast and reach anywhere from 5 to 10 feet tall and about 5 feet wide, depending on how long the growing season is. The stems are dark red, and although the flowers are nothing to write home about, the seeds are gorgeous. They are produced inside decorative red husks from midsummer on. Simply plant them from seed, but be sure to wait for soils to warm a bit and soak them in warm water for a day first. Then put them in full sun and stand back! For superbly stunning selections, look for cultivars such as 'Carmencita' and 'Scarlet Queen'. Combine them with other large plants, such as angel's trumpet (Brugmansia), wild parsnip (Angelica archangelica) or banana (Musa). Or use them by themselves as a focal point in the garden.
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