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(Nodding Sage) "Dancing in the air" is how garden writer Joseph Tychonievich describes the tall, graceful flower spikes of Nodding Sage, which can tower up to 5 feet tall over the plant's 18-inch-tall foliage during the summer flowering season.
(Strong Spanish Sage) Fuzzy green stems and bracts mature to burgundy on this lovely, lavender flowered sage that roughly doubles in height when blooming. Salvia valentina is a variety of the European native S. nemorosa, a Meadow Sage.
(Roman Red Sage) This handsome, long blooming hybrid sage features a dramatic combination of scarlet flowers and deep rust-to-merlot calyxes. Deadheading spent blossoms prolongs bloom time.
Results for considering from the blog
Getting Started with Salvias |
1. Getting Started: Salvias for the Mid-Atlantic |
Outside of its cities, the Mid-Atlantic can be described as an overwhelmingly green place. If you love the Mid-Atlantic, you revel in its verdant landscape. However, if you aren't reveling in the predictable planting choices you see in neighbor's yards, it may be time to expand your horizons by exploring the Salvia genus. Flowers by the Sea discusses the boundaries, USDA Plant Hardiness Zones and Salvia choices for the region. |
2. Getting Started: Salvias for Zone 9 |
California's small, Mohave Desert city of Barstow averages about 5 inches of rain annually. Across the continent, Pensacola, Florida, has more than double Barstow's population and more than 12 times its amount of rainfall. Yet both cities are part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Plant Hardiness Zone 9 where you can plant perennials and shrubs that survive winter lows ranging from 20 to 30 degrees F. Flowers by the Sea takes readers on a triple coast road trip of Zone 9 and suggests plantings for varied growing conditions along the way. |
3. 15 Select Salvias for Dry, Partial-Shade Gardening |
Learning how to garden in dry shade requires mediation of the needs of all the plants involved. Dry shade is particularly abundant under trees, because they consume lots of water. Fortunately, numerous drought-resistant Salvias can handle life in dry, partial shade. Flowers by the Sea details basic considerations of dry shade gardening and identifies 15 sages for it. |
Sacred Sages |
4. Sacred Sage: Giant Bolivian Sage |
Of all the mint family's more than 6,500 species worldwide, Giant Bolivian Sage (Salvia dombeyi) has the longest blossoms and tallest growth. Each tubular crimson flower grows up to 5 inches long and has a burgundy calyx at its base.The plant's bright green, heart-shaped leaves are equally long. In South America, the flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds with extremely long beaks. However, Giant Bolivian Sage don't need pollination to flower beautifully for many seasons if growing conditions are right. |
Quick Digs |
5. Quick Digs: Using the FBTS Wish List Gift Registry |
This third article in our Quick Digs series about preparing Salvia gardens for spring concerns the Flowers by the Sea Wish List for maintaining lists of plants you want and for use as a gift registry. Our Wish List removes the guesswork from gift giving while allowing givers to surprise recipients. |
Celebrity Salvias |
6. The Roseleaf Sage Group: Who's Who & What's What |
Differentiating between the plants in a closely related group can feel similar to being an outsider attending a large family reunion. Identifying who's who and how they are connected is a challenge. That's the way it is with Mexico's Roseleaf Sage ( Salvia involucrata ) Group, which is well loved by hummingbirds. FBTS Online Plant Nursery grows a number of species from this winter-blooming group. |
New at FBTS |
7. Meet Salvia rosmarinus: A New Addition to the Sage Genus |
Bees adore rosemary, the powerfully resinous Mediterranean native known both as a groundcover spilling over garden slopes and as an accent or tall hedge plant. Plant scientists who closely examined its DNA suggest moving the Rosmarinus genus into the Salvia genus. Flowers by the Sea now grows two kinds of Salvia rosmarinus. |
Hummingbirds in the Garden |
8. Red Birds in a Tree: How a Rare Wildflower Became a Hummingbird Garden Star |
Red Birds in a Tree, known botanically as Scrophularia macrantha , is a rare, cold-hardy, Wild West perennial with cheery red flowers hummingbirds love. Southwest New Mexico botanist O.B. Metcalfe collected it in 1904. |
Quick Digs |
9. Quick Digs: Spring Weeds in Salvia Gardens |
Weeding is the topic of this fourth article in our Quick Digs series about preparing for spring in Salvia gardens. Getting ready for the emergence of previously planted perennials in spring and for planting new sages (Salvia spp.) requires weeding before amending soil and planting. Then, growing vigorously spreading sages and ones rich in aromatic plant chemicals called terpines can help control weeds. |
10. Quick Digs: Inventorying Salvias and Tools for Spring Gardening |
This is the first article in our new Quick Digs series about preparing for spring in Salvia gardens. As spring approaches and daylight grows longer, first steps for preparing Salvia gardening include recording sages already planted before planning new purchases, repotting cuttings and seedlings, inventorying garden tools and turning the compost heap. When the first new growth arrives, you'll be prepared to remove weeds before they choke sages and other perennials that are re-emerging. |
11. Paperless Catalog Conserves Resources and Lowers Prices |
Don't expect a catalog in your mailbox from Flowers by the Sea, because we have never printed one and refuse to do so. Print catalogs are tree-munching dinosaurs on their way to extinction due to the rapidly changing world of digital technology. Online catalogs are environmentally friendly and save our customers money, because we can keep our plant prices low. |
12. In the Native Garden: Colorful California Salvias Plus a Cousin |
Native plants, including California's many indigenous sages, are like the boys or girls next door who were overlooked until outsiders discovered their good looks and other fine attributes. Flowers by the Sea grows hardy, drought-resistant California Salvias that are native to a broad swath of the West Coast ranging from Northern Baja to Southern Oregon. Many tolerate heat. They are well suited to waterwise landscapes, including dry gardens. |
Common terms in this search: nodding way established before blooming it's wonder one sage's many botanical synonyms pendula considering branches year curve their tips purple flowers dangling like bunches grapes says his arrowhead become take sage which dancing air how garden writer joseph tychonievich describes tall graceful flower spikes can often tower feet over plant's -inch-tall foliage during summer flowering season these slow growing alpines