Best Purple Flowers for Your Garden

Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana)

This beloved annual perks up spring and fall gardens with its friendly faces. Pansies and other violas are naturally blue, purple, and lavender. Breeders raided the crayon box to give us pansies of every color.

Heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens)

Prized for its sweet vanilla-tinged fragrance, heliotrope develops dense flower heads of purple or white in summer. Bring it indoors for the winter.

'Sunny Border Blue' speedwell (Veronica hyb.)

Spikes of deep violet-blue stud this glossy-leaf perennial through the summer and into fall.

Fan flower (Scaevola aemula)

With pot-bursting vigor, this Australian native develops cascades of lavender-blue flowers.

Bee balm (Monarda didyma)

Reddish-purple bee balm, backed by a burgundy-leaf ornamental plum tree and edged with ornamental oregano, forms a dramatic summer scene.

Clematis x jackmanii

Vining clematis includes an array of species and hybrids -- many with purple flowers. This large-flowering hybrid is one of the hardiest.

Thyme (Thymus spp.), lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

These hardy, sun-loving perennials meld in waves of purple, yellow, and green.

Peach-leaf and clustered bellflowers (Campanula spp.), yarrow (Achillea spp.)

Trim perennial bellflowers after their first bloom. You may see second flowerings that keep pace with yarrow's golden blooms.