Plant Find: Several Salvias

The Salvia genus, commonly called Sage, consists of somewhere between 700 and 900 species, including perennials, as well as tropicals which are grown as annuals.  Many Salvias are attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds.  Lately I've been adding several Salvias to our gardens.  They are great for our climate because they tolerate the heat and bloom throughout the summer.  For me, the tropicals aren't quite worth growing, although there are some really neat colors available in these varieties.  I might try some of the more tempting tropicals in the future and overwinter them in the greenhouse.

New dark pink Salvia, photographed earlier this year, when it was still pink.

We planted Salvia greggii 'Pink Preference' in the corner garden and it came back and bloomed again this year.  It is kind of a magenta pink color.  We got a couple new dark pink Salvias this year (above), but I don't know their name.  We planted one in the new brick garden and one in the corner garden.  It's weird but those same plants now look like they have solid red blooms... I would say it was just my flawed memory, but I have pictures (above and 2 pics below) of the same plants with different color blooms.

We also planted a new, light pink Salvia, whose name I don't recall (but it could be Salvia coccinea 'Coral Nymph').

Light pink Salvia. This has grown really fast this summer, even in our extreme heat.

This light pink Salvia has grown incredibly fast this summer, all the while everything else we have outside has been struggling to survive.  We had more than 60 days this summer with a temperature of 100 degrees or more.  The previous record was 50 days in 1 year.  So we blew it out of the water this year.  I'm guessing these Salvias are more than just heat and drought tolerant.  They must enjoy it.  But wait, you might not believe this.  Shortly after we planted this light pink Salvia I noticed some little plants coming up from seed in the corner garden nearby.  I started to yank them and then I realized the leaves matched the big Salvia, so I let them be.  I haven't seen anything seed and germinate this fast, but now those little seedlings that I let be have grown into mammoth plants just like the parent!

Three Salvias in the corner garden. The Salvia in the back is the original light pink plant and the one on the right is the one that came up FROM SEED earlier this summer.

Light pink Salvia blooms

We also got a Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' (also called Brazilian Sage) which is my favorite.  The blooming bracts are truly black and the blooms are very blue.  These are striking colors that you don't see very often.   It has been growing on the front porch in a decorative pot all summer.  I was afraid it was not hardy, so I didn't want to plant it in one of our flowerbeds.  Also, since it's my favorite, I get to enjoy it a lot more sitting on the front porch.  But I learned that it is actually hardy, so now I am looking for another plant or two so that I can plant it in the corner garden and also overwinter one in the greenhouse for security.  Unfortunately, the heat really took a toll on this plant.  Just when I realized it was dead, I was given hope by a seedling coming up in the pot.  Just like the light pink Salvia from the corner garden, this plant has quickly matured and now has blooms on it!  Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of our plant, so here's a link to see a really good bloom picture.

One of the more common Salvias for the perennial garden, is also a blue/purple shade.  This one is Salvia farinacea.  It has distinctive bloom stalks with white buds that are nice enough even before the flowers open.  See the picture below.

Salvia farinacea

Finally, I'm going to throw in two non-Salvia.  One of these plants is similar in growth habit and form and neither of the two is significant enough right now to get their own post.  The first plant is the Saliva wannabe, Plectranthus.  We had one of these a couple of years ago and I really liked it for the dark green foliage, bloom color and heat tolerance.  It's a neat plant and is staying on the hot front porch for now.  It did really well for a long time and then started giving in to the heat recently.  If it is still alive here in a couple of weeks, I'll bring it in to the greenhouse to keep it over the winter since it is not hardy here.  Since ours has not done well with the extreme heat this year, I have to use a link to pictures here.  This might not be the exact variety that we have, but it is very close.

The other non-Salvia is the common Texas Bluebonnet.  Sadly, this little plant did not like our hot and dry summer.  We have a neighbor that has a bunch of this growing in their front yard along the curb.  I might get some seed from them and try to grow them that way next year.  The color of the Bluebonnets are really impressive, not to mention the neat foliage.

Texas bluebonnet - photographed earlier in the season, before the heat wave!

What is your favorite variety of Salvia?  Is it tolerant of heat and drought?  How about the cold hardiness?

2011 Edition of "corner garden additions"

Each year we plant new stuff in our corner garden.  It's always a bit of a test to see what can become established, what we will remember to water, etc.  We always start with good intentions, but somewhere along the way it gets really hot and dry in the middle of the summer and we forget to water for a week or two and before you know it, we've lost some of our new plants.

This year we have started off with really good habits.  During this time of year we are normally allowing nature to water our garden, but this spring has been particularly dry.  To top it off, we laid out some Fescue grass sod about a month ago, so we were forced to be vigilant with our watering efforts.  Since we have been watering our sod and our new garden around the greenhouse, we have also been dragging the hose out to the corner garden and watering those new and established plants - to give them the water they are expecting at this time of year.

Indian Hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica)

A plant that I have admired in some flowerbeds around town is the Indian Hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica).  After first seeing it blooming and subsequently producing blue berries in the flowerbeds in front of my office building, I searched online to find out what it was.  I read that it was sometimes a challenging plant to grow, but I observed that no one was giving it special care in the flowerbeds at the office.  In fact, I saw it growing in several other flowerbeds that receive irregular attention through the year.  When I saw this plant being offered pretty cheap at Lowe's, I snatched one up to try in the corner garden - saving my receipt, in case it doesn't work out.  (I hope you know that Lowe's has a 1 year guarantee on their plants...)

One of the new Gauras, in bud but not yet opened.  Sorry for the fuzzy picture.

We have planted Gauras (Oenothera sp., sometimes called "Butterfly Weed") in the corner garden before and lost them.  They are mildly drought tolerant, but need to become established first.  In other words, if you toss them in the ground, squirt them with the hose and then let them sit in the baking sun for the rest of the summer, they probably won't make it.  But if you give them some TLC for a year and then leave them to nature, they should be much more successful.  We got two beautiful mature Gauras this year and planted them in our brick garden around the greenhouse.  They have been growing steadily and blooming up a storm, since we have been watering them regularly.  So then I saw some smaller Gauras for a really good price ($2.49) and I snatched up two of them for the corner garden.

New Kniphofia, which is still quite small. Again, sorry for the fuzzy picture.

One of the really cool plants native to Ethiopia that we can actually grow outdoors in zone 7 is the Kniphofia.  My granddad actually had one of these growing in his front flowerbed a couple of years ago.  I saw a large one up in Seattle last year and it is really a cool plant.  My plant is tiny for the time being, but I'm hoping it will grow enough to produce the really neat red, orange and yellow blooms this summer.

New light pink Salvia

We also added some of the purple/blue creeping Phlox, Christie's favorite spring bloomer.  We have had a couple of them in the corner garden, but a couple didn't come back this year.

Salvia greggii which we planted last year.  It's getting bigger this year and has been blooming constantly.

I'm really happy to see that a couple of our additions from the last two years are thriving again this year - the Pink Preference Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii 'Pink Preference') and Elaeagnus.  The Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis v. minor) from two years ago is still just a tiny plant.  I really home this is the year that it takes off and blooms!