From my experience. It's not hardy. You can grow it but I don't know if it will survive your winter in the ground. I never have any luck with it outside. But alot of people in zones 5 and 6 have had sucess with it. I just buy a small plant every year. Sarah

Maybe if you put about 5 feet of straw on top of the plant and extended the pile five feet on either side, and covered the whole shooting match with plastic. But maybe that isn't your question. Do you mean, can you grow it in the summer? If that is your question, I expect you might. But don't you have a short growing season and when I think of SD I think wind. Wind can really batter this species, spring winds have messed up my plants more times than I care to recall. Whatever you do, don't let it get shaded out by your palm trees.

Salvia guaranitica can make a good pot plant. It can last five years in a five gallon container before it has to be divided. However, you will have to keep the pot from freezing. The pots can take an overnight low of 25 degrees, which will cause the tops to die back. As long as the tubers and rhizomes don't darken and soften, you will get some to resprout in the spring.

An unheated porch, garage, or vestibule will work on a dormant plant, except for those nights where the internal temperature drops below 25. I'd keep my collection of plants in a child's wagon for mobility. That way, you can take the plants back out into the sun on warm spring days or deeper into the house for colder nights.

LOL. My palm trees.

Thanks all. With the common name Brazilian Salvia i should have guessed it would be difficult, but i never thought about the wind. I guess this plants not for me... i dont want to put a big risk in for a plant thats not locally available. I just wanted to make sure cause' it was so pretty and i wanted it so badly! Oh well. Ill just stick with my other blue flower. Its so hard to find a good variety of blues here.
Thanks again

Fledgeling

As you know I was just kidding about the palm tree, and it was a very bad joke. Sorry. You should try the exchange in spring, you might get one for the price of shipping. At worst you'll kill it, something most of us gardeners do on a regular basis.
Why is it that that plants we can't quite grow always look better to us? I know several folks who are trying, and to some extent successing in growing palm trees here in New Jersey, and there is almost certainly someone in Death Valley lusting for water lilies. By the way, if you have a sunny window, Black & Blue will bloom indoors.

How about salvia azurea? It's a beautiful blue and might be hardy in south Dakota? Sarah

Here is a link that might be useful: salvia azurea

You can try salvia arizonica, s. pratensis and s. ringens and s. transsylvanica which are cold hardy. I wish they would grow here but it's too hot. Hardyplants.com carries some salvias seeds.

Transylvanica is certainly a nice purple salvia and with protection it just might be hardy. For me it blooms in June and with deadheading will continue well into July. It is rather lax in habit, and will flop on surrounding plants. By August is doesn't look good anymore, so you might want to plant something nearby that could take over its space late in the season.

What a great thread.
Yesterday I bought a "Black & Blue" in a 1-gallon pot. Will this type survive a zone 8 winter?

Black & Blue should survive just fine in zone 8. I am in zone 6b an I am leaving 4 of mine in the ground this year (I think). I have one in a container that I will probably bring inside. Last year I had 4 inside and had to do battle with the white flies all winter.

Penny

Black and blue can survive our North Texas winters - zone 7/8. Mine have multiplied to about 4 feet across and the hummingbirds love them.

This year I'm taking the big risk of bringing no Black & Blue inside. We didn't lose any which were left in the ground last year, even though it was about the wettest winter we've ever had, and cold to boot.

This morning I discovered the my transylvanicas was gone. I had thought that they would survive all manner of abuse, including getting overgrown by Lady in Red and a trailing lantana, but I was wrong. Too bad, the species had been growing on me.