I’ve been going through a purple phase for quite some time. It was a very trendy colour at Chelsea a few years ago, and it has lingered since as a popular theme. Purple has the advantage of combining with almost every other colour, and looks lovely next to green or grey foliage. Even those gardeners who (unlike me!) prefer gentle, pastel shades usually find deep, rich purple acceptable.

Purple for Spring: Tulips – my favourites are Van de Neer, which flowers around April and lasts for ages, even in my windy SW facing border, or the gorgeous lily flowered tulip that comes a little later called ‘Burgundy’. Alliums – ‘Purple Sensation’ is very well named; it is a rich, deep purple, elegant bulb flowering usually in May. A. christophii flowers a little later; it is bigger, but has beautiful star shaped looser flowers. It stands around 30 – 40 cm high so, again, doesn’t blow over too easily. Both these bulbs can be left in situ and overplanted by annuals or later flowering perennials and look good threading through flower beds, often seeding around if you give them the sunny, well drained conditions they love.

Purple for summer: Penstemons, especially ‘Blackbird’, Cleome, sweet peas, zinnias, the list is long. There are lots of purple clematis – I have Perrins Pride growing through a deep red climbing rose (Ena Harkness), Etoille Violette which flowers for ages, and Viticella ‘venosa voilecea’ which also keeps going all summer starting around May. Salvias are great value for money plants, my favourite is ‘Purple Rain’ which has lovely furry grey/green leaves.

For a purple backdrop, Cotinus takes some beating. It is also known as the Smoke Bush as its flowers look like a gentle drift of smoke. It eventually grows into a big shrub, but you can prune it hard. It changes to a fantastic shade of red in the Autumn, another plant that really earns its keep. Hardy geraniums also come in rich shades of purple, ‘Ann Folkard’ and ‘Russell Prichard’ are both great scramblers, although probably they are closer to magenta than purple.

In May, Peter and I took up the invitation to visit the Tollerton allotments. It is amazing how much you allotmenteers have achieved in such a short space of time. I bought back some climbing French beans which are just getting going, and some sorrel which tastes unexpectedly of those little fruit salad chewy sweets I used to have when I was but a lass.