bloooooooom Eight o's. Don't count, bookmark. Plan a bed

Plants with purple and burgundy leaves

Plants with purple, burgundy, bronze or near-black leaves, and how to keep dark leaves from becoming holes.

Dark leaves are a strong seasoning: a few make a bed rich and deep, and too many make it look like a hole. In shade they disappear altogether. So use them in sun, singly or in small groups, and set them against something light, such as silver, chartreuse or pale flowers, which they make glow.

Every plant here has purple, burgundy, bronze, red or near-black leaves, or comes in a form that does.

150 plants: 64 perennials, 6 ferns, 8 bulbs, 15 grasses and 57 shrubs.

The dozen to start with

  • Canna

    Canna

    5 ft · early July to early October · host plant

    Huge, paddle-shaped leaves, green, bronze or striped, topped with bright flowers in red, orange, yellow or pink from midsummer to frost.

  • Japanese painted fern

    Japanese painted fern

    18 in · grown for its leaves

    Arching fronds brushed with silver and burgundy brighten dark corners all season.

  • Elephant ear

    Elephant ear

    5 ft · grown for its leaves

    Enormous, heart-shaped, velvety leaves that point downwards, on stalks as tall as a person.

  • Hens and chicks

    Hens and chicks

    4 in · grown for its leaves

    Tight, fleshy rosettes, green or flushed with burgundy, surrounded by a crowd of smaller offsets.

  • Japanese pieris

    Japanese pieris

    8 ft · late March to late April

    An elegant evergreen with drooping chains of white or pink, lily-of-the-valley bells in early spring, and new leaves that open bronze or bright red.

  • Oakleaf hydrangea

    Oakleaf hydrangea

    6½ ft · mid June to early August

    A native shrub for every season: cone-shaped white flowers that age to pink, huge oak-shaped leaves that turn wine red and purple in autumn, and peeling, cinnamon-coloured bark in winter.

  • Little bluestem

    Little bluestem

    3 ft · grown for its leaves · host plant

    Blue-green summer blades turn copper and bronze in autumn and hold their colour through winter.

  • Autumn fern

    Autumn fern

    22 in · grown for its leaves

    New fronds unfurl coppery red in spring and mature to glossy, dark green.

  • Bugleweed

    Bugleweed

    6 in · early May to late May

    Glossy, dark rosettes knit into a dense carpet that smothers weeds in shade.

  • Caladium

    Caladium

    20 in · grown for its leaves

    Paper-thin, heart-shaped leaves in mixtures of white, pink, red and green, veined and splashed, from early summer until the first cool nights.

  • Smokebush 'Royal Purple'

    Smokebush 'Royal Purple'

    11½ ft · early June to late July

    Rounded leaves of deep wine purple all season, turning scarlet in autumn, with hazy, smoke-like plumes of pinkish flower stalks in summer.

  • Ninebark 'Summer Wine'

    Ninebark 'Summer Wine'

    6 ft · late May to late June

    Deeply cut, wine-purple leaves on gracefully arching branches, studded in early summer with buttons of pinkish-white flowers.

A bed planned only from these plants

The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and full sun, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.

A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed at eye level in mid May: Sedum 'Lidakense', Yellow ice plant, False sunflower 'Summer Nights', Big bluestem 'Blackhawks', Dwarf fothergilla, Beardtongue 'Husker Red', Lowbush blueberry.
A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) contemporary bed in zone 6, full sun, seen from the path in mid May.
4. Big bluestem 'Blackhawks'44. Big bluestem 'Blackhawks'44. Big bluestem 'Blackhawks'43. False sunflower 'Summer Nights'33. False sunflower 'Summer Nights'33. False sunflower 'Summer Nights'35. Dwarf fothergilla52. Yellow ice plant22. Yellow ice plant22. Yellow ice plant21. Sedum 'Lidakense'11. Sedum 'Lidakense'11. Sedum 'Lidakense'12. Yellow ice plant22. Yellow ice plant22. Yellow ice plant22. Yellow ice plant22. Yellow ice plant21. Sedum 'Lidakense'11. Sedum 'Lidakense'11. Sedum 'Lidakense'13. False sunflower 'Summer Nights'33. False sunflower 'Summer Nights'33. False sunflower 'Summer Nights'33. False sunflower 'Summer Nights'33. False sunflower 'Summer Nights'34. Big bluestem 'Blackhawks'47. Lowbush blueberry77. Lowbush blueberry77. Lowbush blueberry77. Lowbush blueberry77. Lowbush blueberry77. Lowbush blueberry77. Lowbush blueberry77. Lowbush blueberry76. Beardtongue 'Husker Red'66. Beardtongue 'Husker Red'66. Beardtongue 'Husker Red'6
From above, to scale. Each circle is one plant, as wide as the room it needs.

The plants

  1. 1 Sedum 'Lidakense' × 6, pink
  2. 2 Yellow ice plant × 8, yellow
  3. 3 False sunflower 'Summer Nights' × 8, yellow
  4. 4 Big bluestem 'Blackhawks' × 4, purple
  5. 5 Dwarf fothergilla × 1, white
  6. 6 Beardtongue 'Husker Red' × 3, white
  7. 7 Lowbush blueberry × 8, white

Planned as a contemporary bed: 36 of the 36 plants that stand in groups (100%) are set out in a pattern with their neighbours: a straight row, a triangle, or five like the five on a dice. The flowering is at its height from mid May, with 3 kinds out together. White is the colour seen most, on 3 of the 7 kinds grown for their flowers.

The planner's own design check: 11 Excellent, 5 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.

Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.

All 150 plants

Show all 150, by where they go in a bed

Front of a bed 49

Middle of a bed 36

Back of a bed 65

Related guides