I seem to have at least one pot I started last year coming up again and it stayed out all winter on my deck. Virtually Gardening 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.