That pink one is gorgeous.

This picture isn’t from my garden, but I have the Salvia Plumosa that blooms all summer and the flowers are so heavy they flop over and look like lilacs. Deer proof, too. I just love it.

This is beautiful, Suzanne! Thanks for posting, I might try it in my garden!

mazerolm, what a pretty picture with all three salvias.

I like this Salvia 'Steel Blue' because it is just a touch bluer than my others.

Are those pink peonies behind the salvia? If so, that salvia must be huge!

My favourite Salvia is S officinalis! Beautiful foliage and delicious in the kitchen.

From my perspective this is kind of like asking about a favorite dog or favorite kid . . .

Not perennial here, but can be overwintered in a pot in a cool, bright area inside, is Salvia guarantica ’Black and Blue’. It has black floral stems and bracts that frame large, rich cobalt blue flowers that are much loved by hummingbirds.

I cannot find a photo but I really enjoy Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’. It has dark stems and tiny rich purple flowers, that in my garden last longer than other Salvia nemorosa I have grown. I also like the way the leaves and whole plant keep a better appearance as the season progresses than other S. Nemorosa types in my garden. I bought it due to positive comments here on this forum.

I also love Salvia greggii, but it isn’t winter hardy here and the pots need to be brought into a bright, cool area for the winter, and I doubt that your season would be long enough for bloom, even if started in a greenhouse. But I am including it so that others in warmer areas might check it out.

A couple other Salvias I like that aren’t perennial, but are hardy biennials in my area (not sure about for you), are clary sage/Salvia scalarea which has colored bracts that last for a really long season, and Salvia argentea which has nice flowers, but the real interest is the large, beautifully silver, fuzzy foliage. The only drawback of these two for me is that the foliage has a quite unappealing odor if brushed against or bruised, so I take care to plant where I can see them but won’t often brush against them.

Beautiful shots, sunnyborders and peren.all! Thanks for posting!

Thank you mazerolm!

Thanks but, it wasn't me posting. Also apologies but I'm in the group referred to by peren.all. Explanation: my most recently purchased Salvia nemorosa or similar form was Salvia 'Caramia', which has not stood out yet. Of the other Salvia nemorosa, I'm most attached to, 'Ostfriesland' (East Friesland), is a good performer, very hardy and, over the years, it's been easy to spread around.

More recently, however, I've turn to veronicas, including for the availability (in garden centres) of a variety of new introductions. At least from my experience, our salvias have generally been easier to keep and lived longer than our veronicas. In fact, some older veronica were terrible floppers. However, at least at this time, it's the variety of available flower colours on reliable plants that has pushed me in the direction of veronicas.

Maz your ‘Bumbleberry’ looks so much like the ‘new dimension rose’ I tried growing several years ago. Loved the color but unfortunately it didn’t do well and dwindled away :(

I have several varieties that have done well, and I like them all. Well...all but the smell LOL.

Pink Dawn

May night

Crystal Blue

Caradonna

And like Sunny, I really like Veronicas too...

@sunnyborders: oups! I meant to thank sandy slopes but wrote your name instead! :). Thank you though for adding to the discussion! I started to add veronicas this summer, it will be interesting to compare them to salvias.

@sandyslopes z6 n. UT: what a striking picture with the poppies in the background. Love your steel blue! It looks like a compact variety from that angle, is it?

@GardenHo_MI_Z5: as always your pictures are swoon-worthy. I just love the colors in your garden!!

Which salvia is the longest blooming in your garden?

Maz thank you. I believe the Caradonna is the longest blooming but the crystal blue is a great re-bloomer. If I remember correctly I got 2 re-blooms from them! I moved some of them around this summer so I will have to pay better attention to the re-blooms next season....

Thanks, @GardenHo_MI_Z5: I lost the tags of the very first salvias that I planted. It’s the longest blooming one in my garden. It matches your picture of Caradonna. I read somewhere that Caramia is its improved form...I disagree. Caramia is a fine plant, but I think Caradonna is superior (in my garden.)

Yes I really like caradonna too since being in their new spots. Where they were planted before...they were almost invisible. I almost shovel pruned them all....I’m glad I tried new placement instead :)

Here they are in new spots (and above)... so much better when planted with yellow or light purple. It really makes them stand out and be seen...

@GardenHo_MI_Z5: it really does! I have many yellow conifers in my garden and I love to pair them with purple. Is it an arborvitae Yellow Ribbon or Sunkist in the background?

It’s a ‘Forever Goldie’.

Comparing my experiences with 'Ostfriesland' and 'Cardonna'; the former is lower and fits in closer to the front of a mixed herbaceous perennial bed. At least in my experience, It also gets to produce a wider spread (block of colour) and with the accessibility for deadheading, overall it certainly has a long bloom time. Should perhaps add; in recent years I've planted many more 'Caradonna' than any other Salvia nemorosa cultivar (because of ready availability matching good performance).

Garden Ho in Michigan zone 5...

..I just wanted to say thanks for alerting me to Salvia caradonna some months ago here... you may not remember but I recall seeing your beautiful garden with the purple Cotinus and yellow conifers and I asked you about these Salvias and you told me all about them... so I right away sent for 2 plants which I received early August... they had been cut right down for posting... I immediately split the 2 plants into 3 each, so I had 6 small plants which I then planted out in 2 groups of 3...

...by the end of August they had buds and were soon in flower...

...I had never grown these Salvias before and I'm very pleased with them... thank you again... from so far away ... which is quite funny when you think about it..

Marlorena yes I remember and you’re so welcome!

I’m happy you were able to find them and thrilled you could divide them too! They must have been nice sized...mail order plants here are usually to puny to divide. They are bullet proof as you have witnessed, and I’m so glad you are pleased with them!

Soon you will have just as many as I do lol...Enjoy!

Yay!! This thread is taking off! :)

I also have salvia Fashionista Midnight Model, which is a very striking color. It has not done well the past two years so I moved it. Hopefully it will do better in 2020. This is not my picture, but it really is this fantastic color.

I have the good ol' tried-and-true "May Night", and it's nice enough - but I'm all abount the annual salvias. "Black and Blue" and "Mystic Spires" are my favorites

@mxk3 z5b_MI: do annual salvias smell as bad as perennials? I gagged when I trimmed mine this summer. :)

Hmmm...well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by "smell bad". LOL! I'm LOL'ing because I think Oriental lilies have one of the most glorious scents known to man and DH can't stand them...so scent is definitely subjective. Anyway, I don't find the Black & Blue to have any scent when I deadhead, but the Mystic Spires have sort of a salvia-ish scent, if that makes sense. But nothing gag-worthy - to me anyway.

Wowza! That really is striking Maz..love it!

Suzanne, sorry I didn't see your comment until now. Good eye on seeing the Peonies in the background. The salvias are really three plants that grew together so it makes a nice, big mound of them.

mazerolm, the steel blue is not really a compact variety, but I trimmed it at the right time so when it bloomed it wasn't too tall or floppy yet. I wish I could get that lucky every year!

@mxk3 z5b_MI: I find salvia foliage smells like cat urine. Trimming it is not a garden task I enjoy. Maybe I should get DH to do it... :)

^^ Y'know, I've heard that before, but I don't have a cat so don't know what cat urine actually smells like -- salvia just smells like....salvia.

I've never encountered that situation with scent :-) Salvias to me smell faintly resinous....which they are. But never unpleasant or too strong. And culinary sage, Salvia officinalis, IMO has the strongest scent and it too is not offensive.........

My favorites tend to be the shrubby species. S. microphylla comes to mind as it blooms in my garden from March through into November and December. The greggiis and jamensis are also in my list of faves but not nearly as long a boom season. I tried a new non-hardy/annual salvia this year that is still going strong with flowers at this late November date. As it was non-hardy, I didn't save the tag but believe it is a S. hybrida selection and possibly Ember's Wish. A big, bold plant with a plethora of flowers that the hummingbirds love!!

My new favorite salvia is rosemary.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/22/rosemary-not-rosemary-rules-rhs-sage-tell-gardeners-change/

Interesting. I would think that they would be able to just call it rosemary sage as to me that's the best of both worlds. In other words reverse the two words. Make it rosmarinus salvia instead of salvia rosmarinus. I know that's just not not the way they do things.

Katob, you beat me to it. I was just going to say the same thing. Read about it in my RHS magazine yesterday. I see Perovskia is also going into Salvia.

Yeonassky, the whole point of renaming it Salvia rosmarinus is that it has been moved out of the genus Rosmarinus and into the genus Salvia. The binomial system tells us the genus and species in that order. You can't call it Rosmarinus anything if science has shown it to be a Salvia. Unless of course you decide that the whole genus should be renamed together. In which case all the Salvias would become Rosemarinus.

There's nothing stopping you calling it Rosemary Sage if you want to since that's a common name, not scientific, and they can be anything one likes.

I really really love Salvia azurea. I am a native plant lover so it may be why I lean that way. It fills that middle range true blue so well. It dies to the ground every year, so I always worry about it, but nope, it comes back just as strong the next year.

Closest to the correct color of bloom, Plants of the Southwest

trialling salvia chamaelagnea and still besotted with s.confertiflora.

yah, sneakily creeping in under the radar - fingers crossed - missed you guys

Wonderful to see you!! :0)

@bellflower: yay!!!!! you’re back!! :)

Nice to see you bellflower!! We missed you also.

I couldn't pick one. So here are three. These are all dryland salvias. Salvia daghestanica and Salvia pachyphylla in particular will rot with the slightest amount of extra water or organic material around their roots.

Salvia daghestanica

Salvia pachyphylla

Salvia chamaedryoides