Baffle gardener, primarily, with affection for purple flower (8)
I believe the answer is:
foxglove
'purple flower' is the definition.
'baffle gardener primarily with affection' is the wordplay.
'baffle' becomes 'fox' ('fox' can be a synonym of 'baffle').
'primarily' suggests taking the first letters.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'affection' becomes 'love' (I've seen this before).
The first letter of 'gardener' is 'g'.
'fox'+'g'+'love'='FOXGLOVE'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for foxglove that I've seen before include "Common wild flower" , "Flowering plant that's source of digitalis" , "Plant (of the genus 10 down) with bell-shaped flowers" , "Tall plant with purple or white flowers - vulpine?" , "Animal and hand-covering for a plant" .)