Purple flowering rhododendrons
This section features rhododendron plants with purple and violet flowers, including both vibrant shades and pastel colours. Vivid purples can represents creativity, peace of mind and luxury with paler purples symbolising tranquillity and calmness. Purples and violets tend to contrast well against yellows, golds, blues, greens and oranges to add depth to your planting scheme. Purple flowering rhododendrons are part of the wider group of acid-loving, spring-flowering bushes which have been stalwarts of the woodland garden for decades, valued for their flamboyant, showy flowers, produced above an impressive structure of spirally arranged, typically evergreen, large leathery leaves. Rhododendrons are particularly well-suited to informal, woodland-style or naturalistic planting schemes, whilst dwarf alpine rhododendrons are effective as rock garden plants. They're also well-suited to growing in containers in an ericaceous compost and easy to grow providing they're given the right soil and location. Rhododendrons prefer a sheltered, shaded spot in a moist, acidic soil in dappled shade, protected from cold, drying winds. Water using rain water where possible, especially in hard water areas where tap-water contains calcium that will neutralise their preferred acidic soil.