How to bring trendy purple into your yard

Pantone’s 2018 color of the year, Royal Purple, has already swooned its way into home decor and fashion, but now is the time to bring it to the garden.

Shawna Anderson, head of Orchard Nursery and Florist’s custom container department in Lafayette, said there are many options for purple blooms and foliage. Here are nine plants to try.

• Calibrachoa ‘Cabaret Purple’ is a new series of Calibrachoas, commonly known as millionbells. Keep it a bit on the dry side for more bloom. Large flowers of deep purple with yellow centers bloom in the summer and fall. Sun or light shade.

• Celmatis ‘Vancouver Danielle’ has large flowers — 6 to 7 inches across — with overlapping petals of rich, velvety purple-blue with reddish central bars. Excellent for trellis, fence or containers. Blooms on new growth May to June. Sun for the flowering part of the vine, but shade for the root area (try mulch). Deer resistant.

• Coleus ‘Coleo’ Coleus is an easy and versatile plant that has an incredible diversity of foliage color and leaf shape. Sun to light shade, welldrained soil and regular water. Prefers morning sun, afternoon shade.

• Heuchera ‘Midnight Rose’ is a hybrid that has burnished black leaves that are thickly spotted with hot pink in the spring. The dots fade to pink and cream in the summer. Morning sun, afternoon shade. Deer resistant.

• Jacaranda mimosifolia ‘Bonsai Blue’ is a new variety that puts on a show in summer with tubular purple flowers. Frost tender less than 25 degrees and must be protected in winter until acclimated. Ideal for smaller gardens and large containers. Sun and regular water.

• Osteospermum ‘Kardinal’ are the most colorful of African daises. Good for accent borders, massings, window boxes and planters or containers. Sun, good garden soil and moderate watering to establish. Deer resistant.

• Petunia ‘Crazytunia Black Mamba’ is big and with velvety pure black blooms. Nonstop blooming from late spring until frost. Sun or light shade.

• Petunia x hybrida ‘Moonlight Eclipse’ has intense purple-blue flowers with light green edges. Popular for bedding, containers and hanging baskets. Sun or light shade.

• Petunia x hybrida ‘Night Sky’ is the most distinctive petunia on the market with velvety dark purple blooms covered in galaxies of large and small white stars. Sun or light shade; average, welldrained soil and regular moderate watering.