10 award-winning (AGM) plants with dark foliage

Whether you’re planting in full sun or dappled shade, these richly coloured leaves can elevate your garden’s texture and tone year round. Explore this curated selection of RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) plants celebrated for their exceptional performance, and discover how to bring rich purples, deep reds, and moody greens into your outdoor space.

Red beauty

A standout Japanese maple with deep red-purple leaves, turning bright red in autumn

Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ is an elegant small tree, which has a long season of foliage colour from new  when the reddish purple leaves unfurl in spring until the whole tree brightens to sparkling red in the autumn. The red winged seeds are also attractive. Best in at least a little shade and sheltered from strong winds. Can also be grown as a multi-stemmed shrub. Height 5m (16ft). Hardiness rating H6.

Tall and fragrant

A tall perennial with purple stems and white spires blooming from pink buds in early autumn

Of all the tall, dark-leaved actaeas (formerly known as Cimicifuga), Actaea simplex (Atropurpurea Group) ‘James Compton’ is one to look out for. It was developed by garden designer Piet Oudolf. Through bold, purplish-red basal leaves emerge even darker upright stems topped with tall spikes of very fragrant white flowers opening from pink buds. Best in at least some shade and sheltered from wind, in rich soil that is not limey. Height 2m (6-7 ft). Hardiness rating H7.

The charmer

Compact with orange-red, gold-edged leaves, crimson berries, and pollinator-friendly flowers

The narrow yellow margins of the neat purplish red leaves give Berberis thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Admiration’ a real sparkle and with the new growth being a much brighter, sharper red set against the mature leaves this little shrub is quite a charmer. Its neat and rounded habit is appealing too and the fact that it does not flower ensures you’ll see no thorny

A seedling is a young plant grown from seed.

Heart of the garden

Shrub or small multi-stemmed tree with deep red-purple leaves and bright pink spring flowers

Although the spring flowers are colourful and attractive, it’s the long season of rich, purple, heart-shaped leaves that makes Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, an elegant multi-stemmed tree, such an attractive specimen. Glossy when young, green-veined when mature, the colouring always has a little sparkle to give it life. Best in moist but well-drained soil in full sun. It matures slowly and resents transplanting. Height 3-4m (10ft). Hardiness rating H5.

Dark and dazzling

Compact perennial with dark to near black glossy leaves and creamy summer flowers

Heuchera ‘Obsidian’ is a compact, mound-forming

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

Dark by nature

Compact evergreen perennial with black leaves, purple flowers, and glossy berries

The foliage of Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ really is black, and looks lovely with snowdrops growing through it. The mass of arching, overlapping 25cm (10in), black, evergreen leaves arise from a slow but persistently spreading rootstock which somehow always looks fresh. There are purplish summer flowers and black autumn berries but it’s the leaves that are special. Adaptable but best in a little shade. Height 15cm (6in). Hardiness rating H5.

Borderline tropical

Tender annual with bold bronze-red lobed leaves and striking red flower spikes in summer

Ricinus communis ‘Carmencita’, an evergreen shrub, is often grown as half-hardy annual, raised from large and attractive but highly poisonous seeds. It has huge maple-like leaves in glossy bronze with a red zone along the centre of each leaflet. Quick growing, it makes a fine specimen in tropical-style borders or in large containers with additional attraction of clusters of yellow flowers and red seed pods. Height 1.5m (5ft). Hardiness rating H2.

Tough beauty

Deciduous shrub with lacy purple-black leaves, pink flowers, and purple-black berries

An outstanding foliage shrub, Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla ‘Eva’ is the result of a mission to create a shrub with the elegance and charm of a cut-leaved maple – but much tougher. This form of our

A native plant is one that originated or arrived naturally in a particular place without human involvement. In the British Isles, native plants are those that were here during the last ice age or have arrived unaided since.

Bold blooms

Perennial with burgundy-toned leaves and pink flowers from dark red buds in late summer

Many dark-leaved sedums have appeared in recent years, some almost glossy and some much more matt in tone and better suited to harmonising with neighbours. Sedum telephium (Atropurpureum Group) ‘Xenox’ is in the latter group, its small leaves are almost beetroot red, and good strong light brings out the best colour. In August and September the plant is topped with a mass of reddish flowers. Best in sun, and rich well drained soil. Height 60cm (23in). Hardiness rating H7.

Pretty in pink (and purple)

Dense shrub with bronze-purple leaves and reddish-pink tubular flowers in late spring

The best of the new generation of dark-leaved weigelas, the foliage of Weigela florida ‘Alexandra’ is olive-green with a brown flush but as the season rolls on the colour becomes richer and darker, though usually with a hint of a few green veins. Dark reddish

A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.