What Is Most Intensely Blue Salvia I Could Grow?
Comments (45)
duane456
12 years ago
robinmi_gw
12 years agoRelated Discussions
I Need a Blue Salvia Variety
Comments (12)I adore blue salvias. I have tried several over the years here in east central MS. I am on the border of zone 7 and 8, so my climate is hotter than yours, but still, you should be able to use some of this information. Salvia guaranitica, Black and Blue, is excellent. It is dead hardy for ME, and spreads enough to supply new plants every year. It gets about 2.5 feet high, begins blooming in mid summer, and goes till killing frost. The blooms are really, truly, deep blue. Salvia Indigo Spires is taller than Black and Blue, but the bloom spikes are larger and showier. Its blooms are a deep navy blue. The plant gets about 4 to 5 feet tall and wide. It's somewhat rangy, and not absolutely hardy for me, but I grew it for years due to its showiness. Three years ago, I discovered one of its "children": Mystic Spires. This is a wonderful Salvia, perhaps my favorite. It gets about 2 feet high, has a very neat, upright form, with deep blue blooms that never stop. I Just set out some cuttings I kept over winter in my garden. They are already blooming and will go until killing frost. As far as winter hardiness goes, I will typically only have about 1/3 of my plants make it through our winter. I don't know if they dislike our winter wet (very possible) or if the cold gets them. Either way, I don't risk losing them all, as they are very difficult to find in my area. I take cuttings in late summer, stick them in potting soil on my deck and water them daily for about 10 days. That's all it takes to get them rooted. I grow them under lights in my basement through winter. Rarely lose more than one plant during this time. Salvia farinacea, "Victoria" or "Rhea". Farinacea is the other parent of Mystic Spires. Mystic gets its larger size from Indigo spires, but it's long bloom season and neat habit from farinacea. These farinaceas get about 12 to 18 inches high and about 12 inches wide. They are neat, bushy plants that make blue spikes from spring to killing frost. They used to be very easy to buy in the spring as annual bedding plants, but they have gotten scarce the last two years. So, I have begun starting them from seed. I got "evolution" from Parks this year and had a very high rate of germination. They should be ready to go out into the ground in another week or two. (They are also easy to start from cuttings.) Last year, for the very first time in 15 years or more of growing this plant, my plants were just eaten up with mildew by fall. Every cutting I took in the fall failed. But, since the seeds are so easy to start, I will probably go the seed route from now on. My growing season is so long that I cut my farinaceas back (Mystics too) by about a third and fertilize them well in mid July. They recover quickly and will bloom continually without flopping until frost in November. Salvia leucantha is a lovely late summer bloomer. It has grey green foliage and lavender/purple fuzzy blooms. It gets about 3 to 4 feet high and wide. It looks very fresh in the fall and complements all the yellows and oranges of that season. It is completely winter hardy for me. Salvia chaemydroides is a beautiful (really beautiful) vivid blue, low (12") bloomer, but it doesn't seem to like my very moist, heavy soil. It's actually said to be almost too vigorous in other parts of the country. The blue coloration of its blooms makes it well worth a try anywhere. I am on my second try to make it happy, and will try again in another place before I admit defeat. Salvia lyrata (Purple "tornado? volcano?"): I grew this one from seed and I LOVE it. Not for the blooms, however. The foliage is a vivid red-purple and it holds that intense color all summer long, even in my full sun. It is a great edger. I remove the white flowering stems. I have also grown (and discarded) Aztec Skies (extremely invasive, blooms not showy, plant messy) I had read that salvia nemerosas don't like the south. My experience agrees: Caradonna: although it's supposed to be the best nemerosa bet for the south, it was a complete waste of money for ME. Never grew. Did not survive my winter. Probably hated my extreme heat and humidity, not to mention my winter wet. In your area, I'd sure give it a try, because it's a stunner when it's happy. May Night: certainly better than Caradonna, but not that much. Its season of bloom is too short (about a month, max) when I can grow farinacea so easily. Purple Rain: Lovely plant in the garden center, but the grey/purple color of the blooms didn't show well at all from a distance of more than 3 feet. The plant is floppy. And, it didn't survive my winter. I won't replace it. So, that's my salvia experience. I hope this helps you or someone else. Good luck! Let us know what you try and how it works out. (Especially if it's something I haven't tried! :)...See MoreWhat is the most unusual plant you grow?
Comments (20)Sorry - no photo but I think the most unusual plant in my garden is Persicaria virginiana - Virginia knotweed. Yes, it's a relative of that nasty, invasive Japanese knotweed but it's both benign and native and so far has reseeded in a most well-behaved manner. It's a lovely perennial that happily grows to a moderate size in part sun, part shade and everything in between. The foliage is variegated green and white and sports a burgundy chevron on each leaf so it packs a wallop and stands out in the perennial beds, growing to about the size of astilbe or a medium hosta. It blooms in late fall but the seed-sized flowers, while numerous, are insignificant....See MoreCan I over-winter Black & Blue Salvia?
Comments (34)Heather I hope your plant did well in the basement. I dug up a rather large black and blue and put in the only available pot 12" I had. I covered it with a black bag and put it in my garage. I cut the stems way down to where it would all go inside the the black bag. I also am able to keep my garage in the 40s with an inwall heater but Im not sure that was necessary for it to survive which it did. I have left that plant in the same 12" pot all summer and it flowered mightily. I will do this again with it will put it in a larger pot. Thank you very much says the b & b. Also for those that dont know Im happy to report on my experiment of covering my entire garden with plastic and bagged mulch worked better than I hoped. It worked with 100% return on every single plant covered. As a note I had not had my agastache tutti frutti return in my zone 6 before I did this. I cut all the plants down to just a few inches above the crown so I could cover with the plastic. It is important to seal the edges as best you can with rocks, sheperds hooks , etc. Also it is important : before you cover make sure dormancy has started, that temps are consistantly in the 40s and lower. Higher than that and plants may try to grow again and this is not what you want. Steve...See MoreBlack and Blue Salvia (salvia guaranitica)
Comments (13)Vicki - I just found some at one of my local nurseries here this past Friday. They had just received the shipment of that and a number of other hummer salvias (eg., 'Argentine Skies') that day. I think that many of the summer bloomers are being held back by some nurseries until this 3rd week of May to make sure that they can avoid those late late frosts - particularly those places that don't have much greenhouse space. You might want to try doing the rounds again to see if any are now appearing at your favorite spots... I know that I've never seen any over here at Lowes, Wally World, or HD so I don't even bother looking at those places any more....See Morejimcrick
12 years agorich_dufresne
12 years agobasil108
12 years agorobinmi_gw
12 years agohummersteve
12 years agohummersteve
12 years agosusanlynne48
12 years agorobinmi_gw
12 years agorich_dufresne
12 years agorobinmi_gw
12 years agovoodoobrew
12 years agorobinmi_gw
12 years agokermitc
12 years agohummersteve
12 years agorich_dufresne
12 years agohummersteve
12 years agowcgypsy
12 years agorobinmi_gw
12 years agorich_dufresne
12 years ago
Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
12 years agorich_dufresne
12 years agoCarol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
12 years agoCarol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
12 years agorobinmi_gw
12 years agoCarol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
12 years agoCarol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
10 years agorich_dufresne
10 years agoCarol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
10 years agorich_dufresne
10 years agodavid52 Zone 6
10 years agoI am very fond of the fall-flowering Salvia Pitcheri 'grandiflora' or Pitchers blue sage. It takes about 3 years to get fully grown. Pinch the stems back a few times to encourage branching and in full sun, its a 3' diameter ball of blue. It does tend to sprawl once the flowers are getting too heavy. I use a peony support ring to hold it up. Easy to propagate from cuttings.
For what ever reason, the intense blue just doesn't photograph well. But its traffic-stopping spectacular, particularly in a mass planting.
rich_dufresne
10 years agodavid52 Zone 6
10 years agoI just grabbed that pic off the web. I purchased my original plant from High Country Gardens years ago, it was called in their catalog "Salvia Pitchardi". They no longer sell it - for that matter, the company was sold and they are reorganizing, one hopes for the better given this last season's performance by the new management on fulfilling orders.
I just looked through web photos again, and this is very close to what I have below sprawling on the ground. Mine are about to start blooming, and I'll try to take some pictures on a cloudy day as you suggest.
Here is a link that might be useful: picture from this blog
david52 Zone 6
10 years agoI haven't forgotten this thread. My Salvia Pitchardi is in full bloom, that deep intense blue, and I waited for a cloudy day to try and capture the hue, but still, no luck. Sunny days are even worse. The closest I can do is by using the zoom and taking the picture from some distance, here's some of the Salvia in a bed with burgundy mums and some agastache. Well, phooey. Its actually a stunning, show-stopping, intense blue but you'll just have to take my word for it....:-).
basil108
10 years agobasil108
10 years agoYes, this photo I took over the weekend represents the color of 'Big Swing' quite well (with no significant adjustments made to the image). I also grow some version of S. patens, probably the species. It looks much like your photo. I think that other Salvias might be close as far as being a pure and true blue, but 'Big Swing' is that plus more saturated. I guess the title of this thread "Most Intensely Blue" is open to interpretation as to what that means.
'Big Swing' flowers are smaller than S. patens, and the petals drop of by afternoon on a 90 degree day. But if you have room, that color is stunning. (sorry for the large photo size - I couldn't figure out how to make it smaller without distortion).
david52 Zone 6
10 years agokermitc
10 years agoThis is a cross we made in 2012 and have been testing this year - Big Swing crossed back to one of its parents, S. sagittata. It has a much better habit, more flowers and is substantially hardier cold-wise. No name yet, and we'll probably release it in 2014. Not quite as deep a blue as Big Swing, but superior in many other ways.
basil108
10 years agorich_dufresne
10 years agoCora
3 years ago
PROFlowers by the Sea
3 years agoCora
3 years ago
kermitc