Every garden deserves this superb new Salvia lyrata cultivar. Evergreen and very adaptable, it sets giant leaves of dark chocolate-burgundy for spring or summer, then turns bright red in fall! Small lavender-to-silvery-white blooms add to the show over a long season on low-growing plants so vigorous they may just self-sow in your sunny to shady garden.The spring foliage is a startling sight, the huge leaves so dark they look black and reflect a blue gloss. Beautifully veined and held in outstretched layers on low-growing plants, they keep their color through summer as the plant grows quickly to its mature size. From mid-spring through early summer, they are topped by long, slender stems crowded with small blooms that open pale purple and mature to silver and white.
In autumn, the plant transforms itself again, the foliage turning bright crimson and scarlet. And when frost comes, this plant keeps its aboveground growth, remaining evergreen in all but the harshest northern climates in its hardiness range.
'Purple Knockout' has so many merits it's difficult to grasp them all. This is a self-sowing plant, so it makes a fine mass planting in open settings and large areas. It tolerates sun or shade, and thrives in just about any well-drained soil, from heavy clay to sand, from rich loam to poor dry dust. Deer and rabbits don't nibble it, but butterflies and bees flock to its flowers. Absolutely any landscape will benefit from an injection of strong color from this very easy, low-maintenance Salvia! Zones 5-8.
