I seem to have at least one pot I started last year coming up again and it stayed out all winter on my deck. Carol Wallace Editor Virtually Gardening Manager, Garden Center Senior Managing Editor, Check out our Sharing Gardens and Homes E-zine Acting First Lady to SQS President of the World. I am going up to Canadian Tire this week that has a huge garden center so hope to get some mulch there and some of these fantastic plants you all have suggested. I bet Jojo would know. The nicotiania will do great for later, its unstoppable and can take coll weather and even a bit of frost.
White plants are usually night fragrant becaue they are pollinated by moths rather than bees.
There are some truly great purple daylilies - if we can find ones that bloom at the right time for you. It will probably be too warm for pansies - which is what I always thnk of first when I think of purples. Purple coneflowers, almost certainly - but they are really more pink than purple. I'm going to have to give this some thought. I'm trying to access one now and can't seem to get through - and for some reason my brain isn't processing purple right now either.