SEATTLE, Wash. — Gardening guru Ciscoe Morris teaches us about the world of salvia.
Salvia (sage) is one of the coolest plants you can grow in your garden. They come in an amazing variety of sizes, shapes and colors. You can cook with some kinds, others are spectacular ornamental, and the flowers of all varieties of saliva are super attractive to hummingbirds.
Salvias are members of the mint family. With only a few exceptions, they prefer full-sun and well drained soil. Give them occasional fertilizer, and water only when the soil surface is dry, and dead head when blooms fade by cutting back to the nearest node below the spent flower and they will bloom and attract hummingbirds practically all summer long.
Here are a few of my favorite varieties:
Salvia elegans 'Honeymelon': This summery scented 'Honeymelon' is a tender perennial that has soft light green leaves with the sweet fragrance of pineapple. Early blooming, it throws up spikes of lipstick red tubular flowers all summer-an irresistible enticement to neighborhood hummingbirds! Excellent tea and garnish herb. Used in teas, salads, and fruits.
Salvia farinacea 'Fairy Queen': This attractive new annual bears multiple spikes of bicolor blue and white flowers on dark distinctive flower stems from June to October. A small white spot on each sapphire blue flower creates the illusion of fairy dust. 'Fairy Queen' has a bushy and compact habit and thick stems.
Salvia patens 'Blue Angel': True blue is hard to find in the garden, which makes this delightful little Sage all the more welcome! Its masses of blooms are pure, bright ultramarine, and they keep coming in the sunny garden all the way from midsummer until the first frost. You can't ask for a harder-working, more eye-catching, easier-to-care-for annual. Pot it up in fall and overwinter in an unheated garage kept active growing by a bright window.
Salvia roemeriana 'Hot Trumpets': This is the ideal Salvia for a woodland garden! 'Hot Trumpets' thrives in shade, remains relatively compact (growing to 6-12”) & produces an almost endless supply of bright red 1' tall flower spikes all season long. Borderline hardy, but will survive if we have a mild winter.
Salvia darcyi 'Pscarl' (Vermilion Bluffs?): The brilliant red flowers of Vermilion Bluffs bloom abundantly from August to October. This variety of the Mexican native Salvia darcyi is cold hardy to -20 degrees.
Salvia nemorosa 'Blue Marvel': 'Blue Marvel' is a dwarf Meadow Sage that grows to one foot or less in height, but doesn't skimp on the flower size. Bright and showy indigo blooms are some of the biggest to appear on any sage, yet the overall size of this compact plant makes it perfect for borders, containers, or coaxing into a ground cover. Highly attractive to pollinators but unappealing to deer and rabbits.
Salvia greggii x 'Nuevo Leon': Masses of intense blue-purple flowers over a long season. Semi-shrubby to 2' tall and wide. Flowers appear from early summer to late fall. One of the most COLD HARDY and best adapted Salvias for the pacific northwest. Wait to cut back until new growth begins in the spring. Remove spent flower spikes to encourage blooming.
Salvia greggii 'Suncrest Orchid Glow': This one has large, bright magenta flowers with white beelines. Hardy to zero degrees.
Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens': Cooks and gardeners alike love this evergreen perennial for the unique, pungent flavor and aroma that its gray-green leaves produce. This cultivar has leaves suffused with steely-gray purple. It forms a 1.5-foot-tall and wide bush with woody stems that may be trimmed back to newly emerging growth or strong stems in spring. In early to mid-summer, it sends up lavender-purple flower spikes; it has both ornamental and culinary qualities in an herb garden. It must have well-drained soil.
Salvia microphylla 'Little Kiss': A more compact version of Salvia 'Hot lips'. Profuse flowers start red, then turn red and white, and end the season white. Produces gazillions of flowers on an 18 by 18 inch plant. Hardy to around zero degrees with well drained soil.
Salvia 'Ember's Wish': Bright coral-colored, tubular blossoms contrast handsomely with the deep maroon stems, rusty rose calyxes and mid-green foliage of Ember's Wish Sage. This one won't survive the winter outdoors.
So enjoy these wonderful Salvias, but remember to wear a hard hat when ever you go near them to keep the hummingbirds from bonking you on the head!
Ciscoe
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