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Canberra Today 20°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

The passion for purple

“Bloodgood”... the leaves turn orange in autumn and the winged, red seedpods hang on to the tree from autumn to well into winter.
PURPLE-leafed plants provide a wonderful contrast to the many shades of green in a garden.

They played an important part of Canberra’s early street-tree planting. The main variety used was Prunus cerasifera “Nigra” planted in Flinders Way, Griffith, and Antill Street, Dickson. The pale-pink flowers make a magnificent floral display in spring.

Since those early plantings many new varieties of purple-leafed trees and shrubs have become available. I say new varieties, for many have been grown for years overseas, but not introduced here until relatively recently.

Fleming’s Nurseries, of Monbulk, Victoria, in particular have been responsible for numerous new introductions into Australia. Citing one tree for example is Acer palmatum “Tropenburg”, with its rich, purple leaves. This grows to about four metres and is therefore suitable for most gardens. It was originally grown at the Trompenburg Arboretum, Rotterdam, by the world-famous maple breeder J.R P. van Hoey Smith in 1965. Fleming’s now grow this here and it’s available at most garden centres. It was given the prestigious Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society (UK).

AN individual, large, accent plant placed in a prominent position at the end of a vista or focal point attracts attention from every part of the garden.

This aptly describes another superb maple, Acer palmatum “Bloodgood” growing at the rear of our garden. When visitors enter along the side path into the main garden, invariably one of the first questions is: “What is that beautiful tree with its almost perfect shape and rich red-purple leaves?”

This grows to about six metres, which in terms of tree sizes is regarded as small. The leaves turn a stunning orange in autumn and the winged, red seedpods hang on to the tree from autumn well into winter.

OTHER smaller shrubs that I noted when doing my perambulations around the Heritage Nursery in Yarralumla included Cercis canadiensis “Forest Pansy” with its huge purple leaves, pictured above. A large shrub or small tree to just 3-4 metres with amazing autumn leaf colour. Known also as the North American “Redbud”, the original Cercis was introduced into western gardens back in 1730 and ranges from Canada to Mexico. Consider Cotinus coggygria “Velvet Cloak” or commonly referred to as the “Smoke Bush” due to its inflorescence in late autumn/winter resembling puffs of grey smoke.

The rich, wine-purple leaves of this deciduous shrub (to four metres) turn to rich red in autumn.

There is a certain magic about purple-leafed plants. When gentle rain is falling on the leaves it is like many iridescent, glistening pearls. Green-leafed plants simply do not have that magical appearance.

THEN we have a recent, improved variety of the Chinese Fringe Flower, Loropetalum chinense “Plum Georgeous”. Its mass of pink flowers appearing at this time and into summer with a perfect backdrop of rich purple foliage. Up to 2m tallx1.5m this can be pruned to keep smaller in a large container, draping naturally over the edges.

Introduced by Plant Growers of Victoria this is going to be a real winner with its rich foliage as an accent plant and definitely worth checking out. This is just a small offering of purple-leafed plants with many other grafted Japanese maples equally demanding a place in the garden.

A LAST-minute addition to last week’s book list is the recently published 43rd “special collector’s edition” of the “Yates Garden Guide” to celebrate the 125th birthday of Yates in 2012. “Yates Garden Guides” have outsold every other book published in Australia and this new, updated and richly illustrated edition is a must and also a great gift at $34.95.

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Cedric Bryant

Cedric Bryant

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