A Colorful Garden Project Using Purple As The Focal Point

A colorful garden using purple as the focal point. Accent the rest of the garden using greens and yellows. This is the first in a series of different tone gardens. I wanted to set this series up a little different from my designs. I included pictures of trees, shrubs, and flowers and didn't draw the plants for you. I made the shapes and gave you some suggestions on where to put the plants. Many people have their favorite colors and will use them inside the home. Take it a step further and bring those favorite shades out in a garden or create a central theme and use them throughout your entire landscape area. You can use all evergreens or do a combination adding some deciduous trees and shrubs.Do mass plantings of flowers around the trees and shrubs. Consider doing one large garden and have purple as the main shade. Surround this area with two or four smaller gardens. Use yellows in some of them to as the dominant color.

Lets get into a little more detail of how to go about planning the garden or gardens out. I am going to use an example of doing a large rectangle bed in an open area. This will be the main bed. Depending on your what size area you have, make this bed as big as you can. Your focal point will be your show case. Add four smaller beds around the rectangle. Think about doing four circle beds. Another option is do create two kidney shaped beds on either side of the main bed area. If you only want one bed decide the shape and size. What colorful trees, shrubs or flowers should you plant in the main garden? This is where you want to make a statement about purple.

• Start by deciding on what trees you would like to plant. I like the idea of some of your base trees being evergreen. Stagger two False Cypress with three Emerald Green Arborvitaes behind the rectangle or main bed. Add a Weeping Japanese or an upright Maple in the center of the bed. This is your show case for the spring through fall months. Make sure when you are picking out your trees that you incorporate some evergreens around a deciduous tree. Your garden project - how to plant and place colorful shrubs and flowers gives you some tips on the proper way to place and plant trees.
• The back of the bed plant a Lemon Thread Cypress on either side.
• Put two Loropetalums or Chinese Pizazz on either side of the Japanese Maple.
• The dwarf Ruby Chinese Pizazz can go in the front, one on the left side and one on the right side.
• Three Mop Cypress will finish off this bed by placing them in the center front and doing a triangle with them.

This main bed is full of evergreens except for the Japanese Maple which will die out in the colder months. Remember, the primary color is purple with accent tones of yellow and green. Below is the design and code along with the name, picture, and number of each plant specimen.