Salvia, Hot Lips
Saliva plants have graced gardens for years. These are easy care rich blue and blue-purple spiky flowers for the middle and front of mixed perennial borders, country style gardens and rock gardens. Salvia stems are wonderful summer bouquets , with their jewel-tone colors and strong vertical form. Able to thrive in low moisture sites. Salvias is a great companion well with Daylilies, Phlox , Shasta Daisies', Tea Rose and Black-Eyed Susan's.

Salvias are a large group of garden plants that includes annuals, biennials, perennials, and shrubs. The perennial salvias are an excellant midsummer garden border.

A relative of the familiar kitchen Sage,flowering salvias produce spikes of small, densely packed flowers with aromatic foliage. They are heat and drought tolerant beauties that bloom from early to late summer in shades of blue, violet, red, pink, and white. Plants grow 18 inches to 5 feet tall, depending on the variety.


Plant in spring, spacing plants 1 to 3 feet apart, depending on the variety. Prepare the garden bed by using a Garden Weasel or a Tiller/Cultivator  to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Carefully remove the plant from its container and place it in the hole so the top of the root ball is level with the soil surface. Carefully fill in around the root ball and firm the soil gently. Water thoroughly.

Apply a thin layer of compost each spring, followed by a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. . Some types can be sheared back after flowering to induce a second flush of flowers in fall. After the first killing frost, cut stems back to an inch or two above soil line. Divide plants every 3 to 4 years as new growth begins in the spring, lifting plants and dividing them into clumps.


The Comfortable Lazy Garden.
Gardening And Landscaping With Native Plants.
Home & Family Gardening.
GardenRack.
No Bend, No Kneel Gardening At Its Best!