The most colourful characters...
When it comes to colourful calyces, one group of plants stands head and shoulders above the rest. I’m talking about the larger-flowered salvias, which often have dramatic, long-lasting calyces that can look nearly as good as the flowers. Many of the Salvia guaranitica group carry individual inky purple calyces that hold for months after the flowers have gone. Equally, Salvia africana-lutea has brown-orange, trumpet-shaped calyces, which set off the gingerbreadcoloured blooms and look like unusual flowers long after the actual blooms have faded. My favourite of the all the beautiful salvia calyces are produced by the Wish series – salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish’, ‘Kisses and Wishes’, ‘Ember’s Wish’ and ‘Love and Wishes’. All of them carry multi-tonal calyces in muted versions of the flowers they originally protected, meaning they look nearly as beautiful as the flowers and help increase the plants’ overall colour and season.