I've never seen the Florette deep purple - as you said, I have seen the Champagne.

How "purple" do you need? I've grown some other asters which are purple/blue. Off the top of my head I'm thinking of Crego, Duchess, Tower, Milady, Perfection, Opus, Moonshine - I grow the mixes of these, so I don't know if the seed comes in single colors. Also, there is Lilliput Blue Moon, and Matsumoto Violet Stripe, but I'm growing these for the first time this year so I can't give a report. More similar to the form of Florette, perhaps, is Ostrich Feather, which again I am growing in a mix and again I am growing for the first time. But perhaps you can look into these asters to see if any would work.

Also, zinnias should still be going strong in early September. Purple Prince, Lilac Time, Benary's Giant Purple - these may all work for you.

And don't forget dahlias. Lots to choose from there, and very elegant flowers.

I think it may be too early for (perennial) asters and/or mums... Perhaps some purple gladiolus? Salvia? (Hmm, that might be more blue...)

Sorry, I've never grown ranunculus, so I can't help with that. Good luck!

:)
Dee

Hi Dee, thanks for your reply. I have only seen the Aster deep purple on Annie's Annuals but I suppose she must be getting her seed somewhere.(perhaps I should ask, they can only say no!) I grew the Matsumoto violet/white stripe last year. They didnt get very tall with me and the flower was variable ,some were completely purple , actaually a good deep purple but the stems werent long enough. I'll check out the other asters but as you say so many are in mixes and you'd have to grow one heck of a lot to single out one colour.
Do the dahlias come in a good purple or are they kind magenta purple? You can get some nice purple glads but they're a bit bulky I find and difficult to place ,I was thinking of mixing the purple with green Nicotiana ,Lime green Langsdorfii or Knightiana. The zinnia is a definite maybe , I have Purple prince but could look at some of the others.
Thanks very much ,thats given me food for thought.
byee

Seedpod, as far as dahlias, you can find them in almost any shade of purple! Or white and purple, if you'd like that. It's a bit late to be ordering, I think, but I'm sure if you check out a few places - Dan's Dahlias, Swan Island, Connell's, Frey's - I'm sure you could still find something.
Between all the different types of dahlias, you could do an all-dahlia bouquet and still have a lot of variety in form and color.

Not sure what you mean in reference to glads being "hard to place" - in a bouquet, or in the garden? Just curious as to what you mean.

I think the green would look great with the purple. Sounds beautiful - very eye-catching!

:)
Dee

Hi Dee, I'll take a look at Dahlias ,I'm not sure what our suppliers over here are like as regards, variety.
Glads, I grow the nanus ones but I'm not sure what to do with the big ones.Its just me , they frighten me.I am guessing you are a fan?
I was wondering about the Dianthus Neon purple,I'm not sure just how purple they are ,a lot of things seem to have overtones of magenta ,although that might not matter.It would just about be tall enough. OK, I'll go and see whats available in Dahlias. Thanks Dee.

Oh gee, seedpod, I didn't realize you weren't in the states. I just looked at your page and saw that you are in the UK!

I actually just really started growing glads two years ago. I was never a big fan of them, then one year grew them and realized they are very elegant in bouquets - and easy to grow. So I've grown more each year. Last year I was lucky and the ones I planted the previous year returned - that was an unexpected surprise. Usually here I'd have to lift them and replant. Didn't want to bother. I just bought more, lol.

The Neon Purple is interesting - but every picture I see seems to be a different color! No wonder you are having some difficulty deciding.

:)
Dee

Hi Dee, Ive ordered some Karma Lagoon and also Choc and Serena. So, we'll see how I go, last year the very few Dahlias I grew left me underwhelmed ,so much so that I didnt even dig them up and as we have had an exceptionally hard winter here I dont expect to see them again.
The bride has toned down from purple to lavender/lilac purple like some of the sweet peas I grow, she was quite disappointed when I said Sweet peas were unlikely to be going strong in September.
Anyone here have expereince in sowing SPs May/ June for flowers late summer /early Autumn. Graham Rice mentions this in his book but so far I havnt heard of anyone who does this and if they use the shorter daylength varieties such as winter sunshine or Elegance. I contacted the breeders of Winter Sunshine and he said that the plants flower before they are big enough although apparently the Dutch use them for this purpose ie. late flowers .
The trouble with all these flowers is, as you mentioned, that every photo you see has a different hue to it ,its hard to know exactly what colour they will turn out.I suppose soil make up may alter colour slightly too.
Happy gardening.