Globe amaranth is an everlasting for dry arrangements If you like having your garden coordinated with your seasonal wardrobe, better start dressing it in purple this fall. Purple is the biggest color in the fall 2008 fashion industry. All shades of purple were used by designers to flaunt their collections on the runway. Is purple on the garden pathway too?

We looked at the purple plant fashions throughout Columbia in wild and cultivated settings. The wardrobe ranges from foliage and flowers to pods and berries.

Two of the most attractive purple berries of the season are worn on distinctively different native plants. Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), aka pokeberry or inkberry, is considered a weedy perennial found along roadsides and open woodlands. The stem is purplish as are the juicy fruits. Fruits are poisonous to humans but not to birds who devour them voraciously. Native Americans used the berry dye to stain garments, feathers, and arrow shafts.

The American beautyberry (Calicarpa americana) is a southeastern native shrub growing to a height of six feet. The purple blossoms develop into clusters of purple berries surrounding the stems. If humans get to the berries before the birds, the branches loaded with berries make handsome dry arrangements.

Ageratum or floss flower is a native of Mexico in the aster family. The flower heads, which are tubular filaments rather than petals, create a fine fuzzy feathery appearance. The long- lasting flowers are named from two Greek words meaning "without age." Height of the plant varies with the species, but taller cultivars like Blue Horizon make dazzling mass plantings and excellent cut flowers.

Torenia or wishbone flower is a member of the snapdragon family. The enchanting plant is not well- known except by hummingbirds, but once discovered it receives a welldeserved spotlight in the garden. The tubular purple flower has wishbone- shaped anthers visible down the throat. The open lips of clusters of flowers resemble a choir singing. Torenias adapt to a variety of uses from hanging baskets to ground cover to woodland gardens. The plant favors partial to total shade in hot climates.

The New York aster does fine in fall here. Hyacinth bean, Lablab purpureus, is a vine running purple - stems, flowers, pods - throughout the garden for 10- 20 feet. A perennial in the tropics and its native Africa, in S.C. it grows as a hardy annual flowering non- stop all sum- mer. The vine can be used as a screen, canopy, or ground cover. The seed pods can be collected and stored to reseed in spring.

Other plants can be considered:

• New England Aster 'novae-angeli'

• New York Aster 'novibelgii'

• Globe amaranth • Purple oxalis • Cordyline festival grass

• Purple fountain grass • Japanese and Wintergreen barberries.