May Night is such a good grower that I keep buying them. Late in the season I am always finding quarts on sale. I see if offered everywhere here, so it is easy to find. May Night is quite a deep intense color. It is so deep it does not project far. It's best to flank it with contrasting colors. If it's against solid green you will not see it as well. If I stay on top of deadheading they just keep on going. I find them pretty neat in habit. I have EAst Friesland and a few others and they don't bloom nearly as much. I have Salvia White Hill and that is pretty nice. I have had my eye on Blue Hill for the color and want that too, but have not seen it offered locally.

I would probably not cut foliage back all the way, as it might weaken the plants to defoliate them like that. Although maybe it would work? Mine always look great with the first flush of blooms, but have never gotten a decent rebloom, whether I sheared it, carefully deadheaded, or left the seedheads on (I actually kinda like the look of the seed heads on some perennial salvia, including this one). Also the foliage always looks ratty by the end of the summer. It is a durable perennial, because I bought mine in 2005 and they are still going strong. Also the voles haven't touched it, while they decimated the Phlox, Sedum, Echinacea, etc. around them. That is a plus!

My May Night salvia spread by runners (I think) all over the small bed I had, which was nearly all sand. I pulled out all but two, planted them in rich soil, and had no further problems. Then I planted one Russian Sage, and darned if it didn't do the same thing. I'm in the process of moving that this week. Do they both like the sharp drainage? Thrive in poor soil? Pondy

I have both, and both are great plants, but I like East Friesland a little more. It is nice and tidy, growing in a 'controlled' clump. May Night tends to sprawl with the branching kind of helter skelter. MN does bloom a little darker and longer, but is harder to cut back for a little rebloom. With the way the stems sprawl I sometimes have a hard time deciding where to cut back to. Both May Night and East Friesland have given me babies, but the offspring aren't the same as the parent plants. As coolplantsguy said...I don't recommend collecting seed with the thoughts of growing more of the same.