It's a great plant, Joseph, but I dug mine up, because I only have just so much space in my garden, and I like to have plants that feed hummingbirds and butterflies for a long time. Salvia guaranitica, another one of the high sugar content salvias, blooms from April - November, providing lots of nectar for hummers and b'flies. I loved my s. regla - it had the biggest flowers of any salvia I've grown, and the branches would bend to the ground from the weight of the blooms, but it always bloomed just after the hummers had left here - too bad! Sherry

I have four black and blue, three in the ground and one in a pot. This winter I will be trying a few overwintering methods to see what works best. Two of them will remain in the ground and get covered with the leaf bags and tarp. The other in-ground plant will be dug up and stored in a dark bag in my semi-heated basement, although I'm not sure 55-60F degrees will be low enough to keep it dormant. The potted b&b will get stored in my unattached, unheated garage. It gets very cold in there, but it should at least be a bit warmer than outside and I will also cover the pot with leaf bags. I also have a guaranitica 'blue ensign' that I definitely want back next year so I'll try the leaf bag and tarp method on it. Some greggiis and agastaches will get the bag/tarp treatment as well.

The best time to take cuttings is when the plants are in active growth. The more robust the cuttings, the faster they will root. Are you in a coastal sand hills, with lots of pine and shiny-leaved understory shrubs? What is your USDA floral zone? Soil type is an important detail, as is drainage. Both sandy soil and red clay will need humus. Leaf mold from oaks and especially maples mixed with aged manure and/or coffee grounds is a very good way to start. A slow release fertilizer applied at planting and again 3-4 months later is also good. Hardwood bark mulch (no wood fibers) not only holds in moisture and root coolness and keeps out weeds, but also breaks down into a welcome humus. How much mulch and humus you need depends on the average soil temperature. The hotter and sandier the soil, the faster mulch and humus will disappear. All varieties of Salvia guaranitica, involucrata, and puberula are good hummingbird plants. A lot of other sages, with blooming spread out over the year, will be good to add to the mix. These include S. miniata (red, summer), S. holwayi (red, autumn & winter), S. reglas (tree-like, orange late summer to frost), and S. miniata (tall, yellow, autumn). S. mexicana also will be good. Many of the autumn sages also bloom in the spring before guaraniticas start, providing you are in a warm enough USDA zone. There are others, but the choice depends on your microclimates.

I have a raised bed that is very dry, so I think I'll try planting a 4 nerve daisy and see how it does compared to the one in the ground. I was at Marshall Grain yesterday and the lady mentioned growing Sundrops instead since it blooms more. Anyone grow it? I've never been crazy about Bulbine, but I saw one at Lowes yesterday and it sounds like something that would do good in my raised bed. I also saw Santolina and it sounds like another good possibility. It's crazy that my roses have done better than anything else in the hard rock like soil of my raised bed.