I love perennial garden plants. Some varieties become like old friends, coming back every year and providing the landscape with beautiful color and texture. 

Back before I moved to Miami, I had a fun perennial garden that was fairly established. Even though it was about eight years old, I still played with and tweaked my perennial plantings. Here's one combination of partial shade plants, though, I found fairly early on and settled with: Purple heuchera with golden spiderwort.

Mixing purple and gold foliage is almost always a good strategy, whether you have sun or shade, because the plants look good together as long as they have leaves -- from spring to fall. You get to enjoy the display for months! The display was even prettier in early summer when the spiderwort burst into bloom, producing violet-blue flowers that contrasted the golden-yellow leaves and complemented the dark purple-red heuchera leaves. Plus, I love the way the almost grassy look of the spiderwort contrasted the texture of the heuchera. 

If you like the idea but don't like the particular plants, you can combine just about any golden-foliage plant with one that has purple leaves. Check out the options at your local garden center and see what kind of display you can create! 

Written by Justin Hancock