Top 20 Flowers to Match the Color of the Year

The Pantone Color Institute has chosen Ultra Violet as its color of the year. This dramatically provocative and thoughtful purple shade is evocative of the mysteries of the cosmos and discoveries that push at the boundaries of knowledge. If you wish to follow fashion and fill your garden with this shade Annie Thornton has compiled a list of twenty suitable flowers. I found this on the Houzz website.

Gardeners who are looking to add more cool, deep hues to the yard or to channel Pantone?s 2018 color of the year can consider these 20 purple-flowering favorites. These flowers, including wildlife-attracting U.S. natives and drought-tolerant Mediterranean herbs, offer a bit of everything for gardeners from coast to coast.

1. Pasque Flower
(Pulsatilla patens)

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Plant pasque flower for showy blooms in early spring that produce nectar and pollen that pollinators love. It will slowly spread to a clump 1 foot tall and wide and can be grown in a variety of garden conditions.

Bloom season: Spring
Cold tolerance: Hardy to minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 31.7 degrees Celsius (zones 4 to 9)
Origin: The central and northern U.S. plains
Water requirement: Low; dry to very dry soil
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
When to plant: Spring to fall
2. Blazing Star
(Liatris spp.)

Paintbox Garden

Tall blazing star (L. aspera)

Prairie gardeners can grow blazing star as a single accent plant or a massed swath, adding a distinct silhouette to the garden that a range of wildlife go crazy for. Everything from bees to butterflies and birds flock to flowering blazing star species in summer, which grow in a range of sizes and colors and will rejuvenate on their own each year.Bloom season: Summer to early fall
Cold tolerance: Varies by species, most hardy to minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 37.2 degrees Celsius (zones 3 to 8)
Origin: North America
Water requirement: Varies by species, from moist to dry soil
Light requirement: Full sun to some shade
When to plant: Early spring to late fall
3. Lead Plant
(Amorpha canescens)

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Lead plant may not be one of the most popular purple prairie plants, but it?s a plant to consider in your next planting. Attractive purple flower spikes appear in summer, reaching 2 to 3 feet tall, attracting plenty of wildlife. Some butterfly species use lead plant as a host plant for their larvae, and birds feed off its seeds.Bloom season: Early summer
Cold tolerance: Hardy to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 40 degrees Celsius (zones 3 to 9)
Origin: The Midwest
Water requirement: Dry to medium soil
Light requirement: Full sun to a touch of shade
When to plant: Potted or bare-root plants can be planted from spring to fall; seed in fall or winter