Yeah, echinaceamaniac, your remark touches on another point I was going to make about this whole discussion. Like most salvias, S. leucantha 'Santa Barbara' roots like crazy from stem cuttings at any point during the growing season, and then they grow like weeds once they're planted-out in the spring or summer, whether from cuttings or a newly purchased plant. So, realistically, I think it makes a lot of sense to treat them and a lot of the borderline-hardy salvias like quasi-annuals. That's what I do with them: enjoy their foliage and flowers one year, take tons of cuttings of the ones I like, and save those aside. Then, if the parent plant comes back strong the next year, that's great, and you'll probably have lots of extras from the rooted cuttings to plant elsewhere or give or sell to other people. If the parent plant doesn't come back the next year, you can replace it with one of the cuttings. And if not even your cuttings overwinter successfully, you can just go out and spend a few dollars in May to buy a new small plant that will be big and full and floriferous by mid- to late summer. That approach works really well, I think, and it affords me the opportunity to enjoy all sorts of awesome salvias in the summer and fall, while guarding against losing them over winter, especially if the winter is unusually cold or wet, and yet not spending as much money on them as I would if I treated them strictly as annuals. Good luck!

I planted a couple of Allen Chickering sages next to a parking lot, in front of a hedge of ligustrum, in a semi-watered location in Fountain valley, Ca (Coastal Orange County). By semi-watered, I mean a place where extra water from the sprinklers behind the ligustrum runs out onto the surface, but doesn't result in a thorough watering. I think the soil is slightly moist most of the summer, and moist all winter. The Allen Chickering have grown quite slowly compared to Pozo Blue and Whirley Blue, two other S. clevelandii hybrids (or cultivars?). Allen Chickering is evergreen, and mine have made attractive, if slow growing shrubs that bloomed last summer. Everything about Allen Chickering is a little smaller and slower than Pozo Blue, but that might make it easier to manage in the long run. The flowers are deeper blue and smaller than the other S. clevelandiis.

Yes. Divide away. If your plant is that big you could divide it into many plantlets.

Thanks, but I don't live in the area. It's not commonly found in my zone (7a midatlantic) because it's not as hardy here, although I've been able to get it to survive in my microclimate. But lost it a season or two ago. I posted here in hopes of finding gardeners who are more likely to have it.