This is the vine that Susan encouraged me to post a pic of. I have now identified it as Ipomoea blackie, a/k/a purple sweet potato vine. It has not flowered, and I don't know if it does. However, as you can see from the pic, although it didn't climb up the gutter as planned, it did "cover that area."

How nice to see the picture, Carolyn. One of the local nurseries was selling this vine 2 or 3 years ago, and I bought one to put in a garden basket. The darn thing hardly grew at all in our cloudy, cool summer weather.

I suppose its the heat that it needs, and we had plenty of that, to put it mildly. It was planted on the north side of the house, so got just early morning sun and then was shaded most of the day by the house. It certainly took off. I discovered that it puts down roots along the stems, so I'm going to try to take some already rooted cuttings and start some more to over winter. I'm thinking it would look really good next year in a bed with the purple/red castor beans and the purple wandering jew....sort of a dark purple border.

I have never seen a purple border, that's a great idea Carolyn. Dark red flowers would look great too, there is a purple leaved dwarf Dahlia which would look great planted with the vine and the Tradescantia. Only purple leaved plants hardy over here tend to be shrubs and trees, the Tradescantias are popular as house plants though.

My Grandmother would always take cuttings of the Tradescantias before the weather got cold, and grow them inside in water over the winter. There must be herbicides in our water, though, because I cannot get anything to root in water at this place. So I don't do that anymore. However, they overwinter outside just fine, dying back to the ground with the frost and then popping out in the Spring. The only problem I have with them is that the chickens love them, and if they get into them, will eat them down to the ground.

Carolyn, have you tried green bottles to root cuttings? I've had great luck with all sorts of things that I didn't expect to do well. And add just a little seaweed to the water.

Some great purple salvias added in to the purple border...

Are you coming to the Organic Club tonight? What about the garden tour on Saturday?

No, I haven't tried green bottles. Since I cannot drink wine anymore (does everyone feel so sorry for me??), I don't have any green bottles.

No, I'm not going to the meeting tonight. Had planned to...before... Robert's allergies went wacko and the only appt. I could get at the acupuncturist was Wed. It would knock me out driving to FW 2 days in a row. Not sure about the garden tour. Have you seen it? Is it worth it?

My laptop says can it live at your house Carolyn, sounds safer and dryer than here. J

Caro, I haven't seen her garden but hear it's wonderful. Unfortunately, I've had something come up for 11:30 on Saturday and now I can't make the garden tour. I wish you'd go and tell me what I missed.

One of the grand estate gardens in England is famous for its double 'Red Borders' Caro, that contain many foliage plants which would actually do well in your 'purple' bed. Since the 'red' borders attempt to keep the foliage 'reddish' as well as the blooms, many of them inevitably lean more purple than red.

For a few years, I worked a section of my long border to contain only 'blacks and whites' (blacks being more dark purple than black, of course) and was often pleased with the result, but the area was too small to contain enough varieties to keep it visually strong throughout our extra-long growing season.

An alternative to purple foliage would be the silvers which I use a lot of in my 'violet bed'. You might enjoy them among your purples to brighten it up. Vita's Sissinghurst has magnificent purple/lavender borders using a lot of silvery foliage. It is a beautiful combination!

I found some cannas at Walmart, of all places, that might do well at the back of the border. I couldn't find a name on them, but the foilage was varigated with dark green and sort of burgandy stripes. Almost bought some, but then I would have had to find yet another temporary home for them, so decided to wait. However, I think this bed is coming together in my mind.

I agree that the silvers would look nice, but I have a vision of burgandy, purple, that sort of thing. Perhaps from reading so much about vineyards and wines in those books you loaned me, Maggie. FYI, Maggie loaned me "A Year in Provence" and the sequel. Very fun books!