Stunning summer displays

Plant up a container or window box with a good multi-purpose compost such as John Innes No 3 (£3.99/10ltr, waitrosegarden. com) mixed with horticultural grit in a ratio of 3/1 to provide the right sort of free-draining environment that salvia love. They look great planted en masse on their own. If you want to mix things up, the blue and purple ones look gorgeous combined with plants with silvery foliage, such as Santolina (also known as cotton lavender) or the silky grey Silverbush plant. They also work well with yellow flowers such as goldenrod and yarrow.