The licorice-like fragrance of its foliage and the big whorls of large, sky blue flowers make this a stand-out sage. Tall and wide, it forms a tidy, long blooming background, screen or border.
(Wild Sage) Toothed and attractively wrinkled, the gray-green, basal foliage of Wild Sage contrasts prettily with deep lavender-to-purple flowers supported by grassy green bracts. This cold-hardy sage is native to northern Africa and parts of Asia and Europe.
(Xobo Valley Sage) Although petite, the rare Xobo Valley Sage is eyecatching due to its lacy, bright green foliage and powder blue flowers. It's even possible that this long-blooming sage may have caught Nelson Mandela's eye as he grew up in the Wild Coast area of South Africa's Eastern Cape.
Cultivating Color |
1. Pantone Pageant: Designer African Violet Salvias and Companions |
Purples are cool yet quietly passionate. This includes African Violet 16-3520, a spring 2013 designer color created by the Pantone Corporation. Shades in the blue and purple color range are tranquil and soothing yet commanding, because they calm the garden. Here are a number of choices from our catalog that fashionably match Pantone's African Violet. |
2. Pantone Pageant: A Chorus Line of Grayed Jade Designer Salvias |
Sage is the common name for the uncommonly beautiful Salvia genus. But when designers describe a product as being sage-colored, they mean a shade of gray-green that they say is soothing and that harmonizes with a multitude of colors, including soft pastels, hot oranges and deep purples. A version of sage called "Grayed Jade 14-6011" is one of the Pantone color-matching system's top shades for the design industry this year. This post identifies some Grayed Jade plants in the Flowers by the Sea collection. They are fine peacemakers amid a Salvia garden based on a mixture of Pantone's top greens for 2013, which you can read about in previous articles from our Pantone Pageant series of designer colors in the landscape. |
Xeric Choices |
3. Xeric Choices: 5 Must-Have Native Salvias for Southern California |
Native plants are the best ones for local conditions. But sometimes boundaries designating what is native may be artificial. Here are five outstanding Xeric Salvias for Southern California, including one, not far over the Baja border, that offers intense drought resistance and violet-blue flowers. |
4. Praise for Top 10 Lesser-Known Drought-Resistant Salvias |
Eco-vigilantes. That's what some newspapers call smartphone users who post photos and videos tagged droughtshaming on Twitter and other social media documenting careless water use by celebrities, everyday homeowners and businesses, especially in Southern California. |
Cultivating Color |
5. Bedding Plant Royalty: Splendid Salvia Splendens |
If the world were to coronate a Salvia as its favorite annual, there's little doubt that a deep red variety of Scarlet Sage ( Salvia splendens ) would bear the sceptre. It's a long blooming, global favorite sometimes called Bedding Sage or Red Sage. When it was first introduced to horticulture in 1822, it was known as Lee's Scarlet Sage. Flowers by the Sea Online Nursery explains the growth habits and history of Scarlet Sage and suggests numerous favorite cultivars to add grandeur to your garden. |
6. Fall Planting: 8 Best-of-Class Sages that Are Easy to Grow |
"Best of Class" is the title that Flowers by the Sea bestows on plants we honor for being winners in many ways. They are lovely, abundant bloomers and reliable repeat performers that are useful in many landscapes, including low-water gardens designed to have a cottage, woodland or desert look. In the case of the sages ( Salvia spp.) described here, all are easy to grow because they thrive with little fuss. Many are heat tolerant and drought resistant. |
7. A Community of Anise Scented Sages We Adore |
You might expect the foliage of a plant called Anise-Scented Sage (Salvia guaranitica) to smell robustly like licorice, which shares the same fragrance as anise. Some gardeners detect a hint of licorice after crushing a leaf, but many say the foliage merely smells sweet. These popular sages are native to Brazil where indigenous peoples used their leaves as a medicine. Flowers by the Sea grows many varieties in a wide range of sizes and flower colors |
Xeric Choices |
8. Drought Praise: Hot Pink and Purple Autumn Bloomers |
Late summer is a good time to plant at the coolest times of day. Settling in Autumn Sage ( Salvia greggii ) and Mountain Sage ( S. microphylla ) before Indian summer will give their roots a chance for strong growth so they can withstand winter's chill and leaf out again next spring. These drought-resistant species are closely related and hybridize freely when they meet. They also cross with other sages they encounter. FBTS details seven pink and purple varieties that bloom off and on spring to fall. |
9. Guide to Understanding & Using Fertilizer |
Identifying the kind of fertilizer your flowers need can be a trial-and-error experience. This is especially true if you are growing plants that don’t thrive in fertile soils like loam. Flowers by the Sea Online Nursery hopes to clear up some of the confusion in this Guide to Understanding and Using Fertilizer . |
Sage Words About Wildlife |
10. Sage Words About Wildlife: Climate Change Alters Hummingbird Migration |
Nature doesn't come to a sudden, overall halt, when the timing of its ecosystems slip, including ones involving hummingbirds. Instead, change occurs gradually. Plants and the animals that pollinate them have coevolved to meet each other's needs. You can help by planting hummingbird habitat in your home garden. Learn more in the Everything Salvias Blog at FBTS Online Nursery. |
Getting Started with Salvias |
11. Getting Started: Annual, Perennial and Shrub Sages |
For beautiful floral display and refreshing greenery, every yard needs a combination of annual bedding plants, perennials and shrubs. Salvias provide a feast of landscaping possibilities. Flowers by the Sea explains all the different types of Salvias, including subshrubs, biennials and tree-like Salvias |
Xeric Choices |
12. Drought Praise: Around the World with Sunny Groundcovers |
Bring on the sun. Bring on the heat. Bring on the drought-resistant Salvia groundcovers.Flowers by the Sea offers a short list of top groundcovers from around the world for fighting drought. They come from Asia, California, Mexico and Morocco in lavender, purple and pink to do battle against the boring brown caused by water shortage. Similar to gravel, bark chip or pine needle mulch, these groundcovers discourage weeds, cool soil, conserve moisture and add color to gardens. They are living mulch. |
Common terms in this search: cool features fbts collection guaranitica hybrids unlike deep saturated blue purple most sages series pastels program native argentina brazil paraguay uruguay wild grows edge streams forest clearings like part development shocking favorite pink anise-scented sage dusky green bracts support pastel magenta blossoms its hummingbird bright plant fragrant foliage may remind licorice why because surprising color abundant flowers product our other