Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Pantone Color of the Year 2023
We’ll be seeing plenty of red next year, or rather reddish-purple. Pantone has chosen Viva Magenta as their 2023 Color of the Year.
While they wax poetic in their description, it’s really an amazing color. To quote Pantone, “Viva Magenta is brave and fearless. A pulsating color promoting joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.” That’s not all. It is a shade rooted in nature. It’s inspired by the red of cochineal (KAA chuh neal), a scale insect, which is used to make a natural red dye used in many things, including food. Sorry if you’re squeamish! Anyhoo, according to Pantone, ‘Viva Magenta’, the color, not the bug, is “brave and fearless, powerful and empowering”. Okay!
Relating this all to plants, I can come up with several that would come close to fitting the bill of Viva Magenta! PS, red is the hardest color to match, according to the graphic designers I work with!
Coral Bells or Heuchera comes first. ‘Midnight Rose’ is a mix of almost blackish leaves with pink spots creating a mix of magenta color.
‘Georgia Plum’ is also a great color with rose-purple foliage that has a silver overlay.
A smokebush I just planted this year is perfect for a smallish space, it’s called ‘Winecraft Black’ and grows to 6 ft. by 6 ft.
‘Royal Purple’ grows 10 ft. by 10 ft., although this one is listed as only hardy to zone 5. The fuzzy flowers are nearly a perfect match!
A non-invasive barberry, perfect for small spaces, called ‘Sunjoy® Mini Maroon’ has burgundy deciduous foliage that emerges brick red in spring on a plant with a round habit of growth. The small oval leaves are highly ornamental and turn outstanding shades of plum purple in fall.
