Welcome to the dark side of your garden!

With the return of the new "Star Wars" movie this summer it may be time to create some changes to your flower gardens with plants with dark red to purple foliage, "The Dark Side". If you have never been a fan of dark foliage in your garden, I would love for you to try some of the following plants. Dark foliage will maximize your character in your flower beds, planters, window boxes and around water features and garden structures. If you're looking for elegance, combine dark foliage with grays, blue, and deep greens foliage plants. This spring let's create a garden or containers that will give you sultry richness of velvety purple combined with deep crimson. Be daring and combine near black leaves with magenta to pink flowers and foliage or deep burgundy and coppery browns. Dark foliage in all forms deserves a place in your gardens everywhere this spring and summer.

1} Purple Majesty millet: is a plant that resembles a miniature corn plant with purple foliage and with a purple 12 inch spike flower that slowly produces yellow flowers starting at the top and working its way down. The plant will grow 2 feet tall and 12 to 18 inches wide and is a wonderful annual. Looks great in gardens and planted in large containers in place of the common dracaena spike. The plant is free of disease and insect problems. The flower spike flower will produce many round bee bee shaped seed pods that are also purple. The flowers come on long and strong stems making them perfect to dry for the winter once the seed pods form. If you're looking for something different this plant is for you with great shape, foliage, and flowers.

2} Purple Knight Alternanthera: is a wonderful foliage plant that looks like Basil with larger foliage. The new growth is a greenish purple that quickly turns dark purple. The plant grows 12 inches plus tall and just as wide. The foliage is shiny with deep indented veins in it and elongated oval in shape to a point. No problems with disease or insects and I grew it in large planters with several other multi colored foliage plants. Colorful foliage is more attractive to me than a container of flowers, especially if you mix foliage textures and colors. In the fall dig up plants or take cuttings so you can enjoy indoors during the winter months. Return to the garden or containers in the spring.

3}Moses in the Bulrushes: is a wonderful vine like plant that resembles the Wondering Jew plant foliage. Plant in window boxes or planters in place of Vinca vine for great color all season long and watch the long branches of foliage reach to the ground. It will also produce 1 inch oval shaped flower bud cluster that produce lavender flowers. It is striking when mixed with everything from petunias to geraniums and even dusty miller with its silvery foliage. In the fall dig up the plant and plant in a hanging basket or take cuttings for 4 inch pots for the window sill. Enjoy indoors all winter long and then move the plants back out to your summer gardens.

4}The purple leaf Castor bean plant: A great tall growing plant with unique foliage that resembles the Chestnut tree leaves, like a hand with many fingers, leaf cluster is 12 to 15 inches in diameter. This plant will grow 2 to 4 feet tall and wide with bright purple foliage, shiny and sunken veins on it. The plant will produce flower cluster of tiny yellow flowers and when fertilized by the bees and wind. The 1 inch pods are covered with soft thorns will form on the plant and purple in color. The pods resemble the American chestnut and it does contain seeds in the pods. Let the pod dry and then pick pods and place in a paper bag until they break open. Save the seeds and store in a cool basement to plant again next year during late March indoors to transplant when the threat of frost is over. The plant is poisonous so keep out of garden where small children frequent. Insect and disease free makes this plant more enjoyable.

5} Persian Shield: is one of my favorites for containers or in a garden with oval leaves and to a point. The leaves are metallic purple in color with deep sunken veins that give the foliage much character. The foliage a royal velvet appearance and when planted with silvery or gray foliage plants it is truly striking. The plant will grow 12 to 15 inches tall and just as wide. No disease or insect problems so mix this plant with fine texture foliage like dusty miller for striking appearance. Plants can be dug in the fall and potted or take cuttings to root in pots to enjoy all winter long.

Persian shield

6} Begonia Linda Dawn: This is a wonderful Angel leaf type of begonia with purple foliage and pink and white flowers giving this plant much contrast and much character. The new leaves develop with a burgundy red color that in time will turn deep purple and in the shape of an Angel's wing. Leaves have sunken veins on top of leaf and raised veins on the underside of the leaf and they are shiny. The plant will grow 12 to 18 inches tall and just as wide. No disease problems as well as insect's problems on this plant. Mix with other colored foliage plants or flowering plants in containers or window boxes. In the fall dig plants and pot for great winter color in your home for the winter or take cuttings.

7} Atriplex or Mountain Spinach: This wonderful annual looks wonderful in your garden as it will grow 3 to 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Put in the same garden as The Purple leaf Caster Bean plant for great contrast. The foliage is deep purple with pink sunken veins and the new growth begins all pink and as it ages the foliage will change to deep purple. You will find the seeds in the same area of catalogs as vegetables rather than ornamental plants. This plant is fast growing and when the heat of summer arrives and your spinach goes to seed you can eat the foliage fresh out of the garden raw or cooked. When young pinch the tip of the plant to make the plant develop side shoots and remove any green leaves that form on the plant. Remove most of the seed heads as they form to keep plant producing new purple foliage. If you allow a few seed heads to remain on the plant, seeds will form and fall to the ground starting new pants for the fall season. Dig young plants in the fall and bring indoors before the freezing weather begins for great color and tasty foliage.

8} Dark leaf Dahlias: This a wonderful looking dahlia plant with dark purple leaves, Purple stems, and Purple flower buds. This dahlia will produce a yellow daisy like flower with an orange center. The plant will grow 18 to 24 inches tall and 12 to 15 inches wide and the flower stems are long and strong. A great plant to use in large containers or plant directly in your flower garden. Also wonderful for cutting and flower arrangements. No disease problems or insect problems. Dig the bulbs in the fall after the frost has killed back the foliage and store in your basement or crawl space under your home. This plant will catch the eye of even long time gardeners and bring a smile to their face.

Purple shamrocks

9} Purple Shamrocks, {Oxalis triangularis Atropurpurea}: this unique plant has a 3 segmented leaf that are triangular in shape. The leaf has deep purple edges, with a purple-pink center and smooth but not shiny. Grows in a clump and is a bulb, so grow in a pot so that when fall comes you can bring it into the house for the winter or place it in the basement and let it go dormant for a couple of months and then water for a fresh start. The plant does produce small white flowers but the foliage is the reason for this plant. This plant is great for a deck or patio, for summer color. Plant 3 to 5 bulbs in a 10 inch pot. I like to place several pots together in a grouping for a special effect. If you allow the plants to rest from fall September to January and then add water it come back to life for a fresh start and last for many years

10} Sweet potato Vine: is a wonderful   vigorous vine for containers or use it as an annual ground cover as each plant will spread up to 10 feet. Use several colors of sweet Potato vines for special effects. "Blackie" is one of the first dark leaf varieties but now look for" Sweet Carolina Purple" with deeply cut lobes and less aggressive for containers. You can also use "Ace of Spades", "Black Beauty" or "Black Heart" who have heart shaped leaves. Grown in full sun will give them the darkest colored foliage. In the fall take cuttings and grow indoors as a house plant or dig up the large tuberous roots and store them in a cool dry place packed in peat moss like you would do with Dahlias.

All these plants will do very well in your gardens and give you months of wonderful colorful foliage. When you plant be sure to add a pinch of soil Moist granules to help with water retention during the heat of summer. Fertilize with Dynamite times released fertilizer once a year at time of planting, or use an organic fertilizer like Neptune Harvest Fish and Seaweed fertilizer or Fertilome Blooming and Rooting plant food every couple of weeks. Enjoy!

The best known and most loved type of rose in the family of roses is the beach rose. The Rosa Rugosa has it all, including a "FRAGRANT" flower that is hard to find today in the rose garden. As the flower fades, a one inch diameter orange red tomato-like fruit develops at the base of the stem where the flower once was. The fruit will color up in late July to early August and last well into the fall. You can eat the fleshy part of the rose fruit, as it is rich in vitamin E.

The Rosa Rugosa is a shrub rose and, unlike the typical rose bush you plant in the garden, has its own root system. The typical rose bush is grafted to a different root system, to make it strong enough to survive the winter where you live. Because the beach rose has its own roots, it is able to spread with underground stems that form from those roots to start new plants away from the main plant.

The beach rose has rough-looking deep green leaves that are shiny, with rounded teeth on the edge of the leaf margin. Each leaf is thick and will have from 3 to 7 individual leaflets making up the leaf. Older leaves have higher leaflet count and the leaf just below the flower always has 3 leaflets. The veins on the leaf are sunken into the foliage and very noticeable. The plant develops into a rounded mound of stems, and each of those stems is covered with flowers in June. You can grow the plant as a single mound-type rose bush if you remove the suckering branches that develop continuously around the plant.

The flowers are 2 to 3.5" in diameter and mostly single blossoms. Single flowering types have a single row of petals that are flat and number 5 petals--like a rosette. Today you can find new hybrids that are double-flowering and often resemble a carnation bloom. The flower color will range through white, pink, red and mauve. The center of the flower is filled with many yellow stamens, giving it additional color. Each flower will bloom for 2 weeks or more on the plant. If you cut a fresh bloom just opening and place it in a bowl or brandy snifter filled with water, it will float easily and bring fragrance to your kitchen table. It will last several days.

The Rosa Rugosa will grow 4 to 6 feet tall but with pruning you can keep it at any height you want. When planted on 3 foot centers in a row, they will make a wonderful hedge planting. Make the planting bed 3 feed wide to allow room for the new shoots to develop and in just 2 to 3 years your individual plants will fill in the entire bed with new shoots, creating a solid hedge. Your only maintenance will be removing the shoots that develop in the lawn area from the hedge. Cover the bed with 2 to 3 inches of compost or bark mulch to keep the weeds out.

Rosa Rugosa, or beach rose, will grow "ANYWHERE," even at the beach in the sand. If you have a sunny, well drained place in your yard that where nothing seems to grow, think about planting a beach rose. When planting, use the same method as any other plant in your garden by conditioning the hole and surrounding soil with animal manure and compost to get the plant off to a good start. I always use a soil conditioner like Soil Moist in sandy soil to help hold moisture around the roots. Soil Moist will hold 200 times the moisture in the soil that peat will, and only a couple of tablespoons are needed per plant. Think about this, two tablespoons of Soil Moist will hold 400 tablespoons of water around the roots of a plant that is growing in a sandy soil. Less watering is necessary, and once it is established it can take care of itself. Fertilize in the spring and again in June with granular organic rose fertilizer and enjoy a garden of roses all summer long. One last thing about this rose is disease resistance, unlike most other roses. Enjoy!