There's over 900 species in the genus and a number of garden hybrids - you aren't necessarily limited to the kinds you have mentioned here, including tuberous ones like Salvia farinacea that are on the borderline in USDA 8. Maybe wait until your roses (and the sage plants) are in flower this summer and cruise local outlets to see what might pair well with your shrubs, check hardiness zone indications on the tags of these latter.

Also speaking of books maybe look at a library for the excellent Encyclopedia of Perennials (DK Publishing 2006) edited by Graham Rice. If the Seattle Public Library system does not have it they almost certainly will at the Miller Library of the Center for Urban Horticulture on the edge of the Laurelhurst neighborhood. Note in particular the side bar North and South on page 415 of the Encyclopedia where there is a full paragraph describing how to keep S. farinacea (and S. patens) going.

I've had a great luck with Salvia 'May Night'. Very drought tolerant, profuse bloomer. I never observed hummingbirds on it though but it was planted quite far from my house so maybe I missed them. I killed many of the hummingbird magnets plants like Salvia 'Hot Lips'. Like gardengal48 said it was the cold wet soil in winter they did not like. Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Bloom' I grew in pot on my deck was a huge hit with hummers and bloomed for solid 4 months but I suspect it would die in a ground in winter. I'm zone 7B (down to 9 degrees just few weeks ago during the Snowmageddon).

The USDA zones are based on average lows over specific periods of years and not individual extreme low temperatures. The current hard to read USDA map appears to show the area falling within USDA 8 being rather big in western WA, as did the last one. Which had Zone 8 lining up pretty well with Sunset 4 and 5.

Salvia 'Hot Lips' has been perennial in my Shoreline garden but I am not sure if the 5 yr. old will survive this winter. It is planted on a hill so drainage is not a problem. The hummers love the hardy fuchsias, fuchsia magellanica, so that might be another solution. They are not in full sun - but get do get a lot of afternoon sun. They also bloom for months and the only problem is that they may need some shaping to keep in check if they are very happy. Not a bad feature in my garden.

Thanks everyone. I will look into some of the gregiis, microphyllas, and x jamensis varieties in addition to the varieties mentioned above. Based on feedback here I probably will not go with a farinacea variety.

With regards to the winter wet: should I be concerned about anywhere that gets winter rain? I can give the plants excellent drainage but I will not be able to prevent them from getting wet given our climate. I'm guessing the varieties mentioned by Gardengal are the most likely to handle the winter wet (in addition to the nemerosa types).

The sharp drainage mentioned is the solution to the winter rain. Sharp drainage for plants needing it is accomplished through planting them in a coarse soil, with lots of air spaces between the soil particles. Sloping topography will not protect susceptible plantings from failures if the internal drainage of the involved soil is poor.

I can only speak for my garden in Walnut Creek, CA that was total adobe soil. Adobe is a very compact soil, hard as rocks in summer and sticky and dense in winter. Most Salvias are Mediterranean natives and grow in this soil - but more successfully on slopes. They can not tolerate wet feet. I grew more than 125 varieties of salvias under these conditions. Adobe is very fertile and requires no fertilization for most plants. Adobe mud will pull soles off of shoes when dried! Direct as well as reflected sun, summer temps in the 100's, and watering only when plants showed distress produced salvias that bloomed all summer and fall, seeded prolifically and lived for years and years. Can they be grown in the PNW? Sure with lots of fussing and experimentation to find the ones that will survive, but there are so many other beautiful plants that will be easier and more satisfying and I prefer to plant those. Life is too short and my garden is too big to seek plants that I know will not thrive.

I'm not sure that these require all that much fussing and experimentation :-) Just make sure your soil drains fast and well and provide plenty of sun. I've grown Hot Lips for more than 10 years without concern for either hardiness or winter wet but in a full sun location and in an elevated position (raised terrace bed). It is really more of a shrub than a dieback perennial, as are the others I referred to. I have also had great success with culinary sage, Salvia officinalis, which also makes a large, woody evergreen subshrub.

But I am in a milder PNW location than Woodinville and one that receives less rainfall as well:-)

I’ve had greggii and microphylla for a while, but the do suffer durning cold and wet. S darcyi does ok in some places. Some patens and guarantica do ok for many years too. S nemorosa did great in my hell strip with no water for many years and did attract the birds, but not as much as the red ones. Agastache was harder for me in clay and I did t have many stick around for more than a few years.

I planted 3 May Knight Salvia a few years ago. They have spread to fill in a large area. The hummingbirds and the honey bees love them and will bypass my feeders to go to them.