IME, Euonymus 'Green Spire' has some long term issues in the PNW. While I think the plant is extremely attractive and very useful as a narrow profiled accent shrub, it often experiences significant dieback from a fungal pathogen, Oidium euonymus japonici, which occurs only on Euonymus japonicus cultivars. The result is rather unattractive unless pruned out and then you are left with holes in the plant and an uneven form. I have also seen the plant die outright from this problem. Also, the upward sweep of its branching sometimes relaxes and you get odd, directional growth that detracts from the columnar form and needs to be removed. 'Sky Pencil' has proven to be a very reliable plant here but with a narrower profile than the euonymus and a slower growth rate.

I think this may be the plant I've seen on my way home from work (from the car, about 20 feet away). The leaves appear to be the same color and shape as Indigo Spires, but the plant itself is about the same size as S. nemorosa. The spikes are huge! If this is Mystic Spires, I will definitely be seeking out this plant for fall planting. I hope those of you who are trying it this year will report back on it in the fall. I'd like to know how it handles summer heat and if it retains its full appearance throughout the season.

No pictures, but the foliage seems to top out at about 18 to 22 inches for me, growing them in full sun. With the flowers, they are about 30 inches tall alltogether. If the stems are sprawling and breaking, maybe they aren't getting full sun? Or perhaps they are getting overhead spray irrigation, and would be more successful with drip. I have microspray drip irrigation hitting my plants, and they seem fine with it. The one complaint I have with this new hybrid, is that it seems to keep getting eaten by caterpillars on both the foliage and blooms, the little green ones that seem to like cabbage as well. The taller growing parent plant, Salvia 'Indigo Spires' never had insects except for snails and slugs. Mystic Spires growth habit seems abit too compact for my taste, and almost seems to look as if it was being sprayed with growth retardant to keep it so bushy. You might find success with using Salvia uliginosa for the same clear blue flowers, but on a lot taller growing, more wispy plant. This one also loves full sun and regular water, and will even do well as a pond marginal. The bloom season may not be quite as long as Mystic Spires, but they can be in bloom from June until Christmas. Ceratostigma plumbaginoides is another good dwarfish blue flowering perennial for late summer into fall bloom.

So Robin, have some of your public gardens been doing mass plantings of Indigo Spires? Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania has gone into this plant in a big way. This summer they had several patches of at least 40 X 20 feet and those plantings were jaw dropping. They staked each plant upright to about 3 feet and then let them spread out and go mad. By July it was a solid mass of blooms and in no way untidy. This year at home I fronted them with a hedge of Cuphea David Verity and the orange flowers of the Cuphea constrasted beautifully with Indigo Spires dark purple and also helped to contain the plants. From behind they were held in place by Salvia subrotunda. It worked rather nicely. The use of uliginosa and involucrata are certainly worth considering for next year, the light blue of the former would add a nice match and involucrata would stand out well and find support. For the orange contrast, Cuphea works better for me because I've never figured out how to grow decent darcyi.