Sage advice
Perfect pink, powder blue or mellow yellow? There’s sure to be a salvia shade for you
ASK someone to name a member of the sage family and chances are they’ll suggest the culinary herb that’s used to flavour many dishes. Yet there are hundreds of less aromatic varieties that are grown for their stunning blooms – not their edible leaves.
Flowering sages are among the most desirable plants you can grow. With their colourful flowers held on bolt-upright stems above mounds of foliage, they are guaranteed to turn heads from late spring until the end of autumn, depending on variety.
Snap up some pot-grown plants now and plant them in a sunny bed, border or pot. They’ll earn their keep for many more weeks or even months before the blooms fade, and establish themselves quickly in soil or compost, ensuring an even better display next year.
Flowering sages include annuals, biennials, shrubs, herbaceous and evergreen perennials among their ranks. Some are completely hardy, while others will turn up their toes at the first sniff of frost.
Both culinary and flowering sages are known botanically as salvia, a name that derives from the Latin word salvare, meaning ‘to save’.
In ancient Rome and Greece, the leaves of edible sages were used to treat wounds. The Romans introduced the herb to Britain, but the flowering types didn’t arrive in this country until the 18th Century.
Since then, plant breeding has led to the introduction of more than 1,000 different salvias. These range in height from 12in to 6ft, and are topped by spires of blue, purple, red, pink or white blooms. A few even have two colours. The flowers vary enormously in size and shape; some are smaller than a little fingernail but others are up to 2in long. Many will attract bees.
Those with blue flowers are achingly beautiful. Salvia guaranitica ‘Blue Enigma’ boasts deep blue blooms on 5ft stems lasting from summer to mid-autumn, while S. patens ‘Cambridge Blue’ carries pale blue flowers on 2ft stalks. Native to parts of Brazil and Argentina, S. uliginosa is an elegant plant with 6½ ft-tall stems and powder-blue flowers.
If you prefer hotter shades, try bright pink S. microphylla ‘Cerro Potosi’ or S. ‘Silas Dyson’, a bushy variety with crimson flowers that make their debut in May and bow out in November. Introduced to the UK in 2004, S. microphylla ‘Hot Lips’ is from Mexico and bears masses of two-tone, red and white flowers on 3ft stalks from July until October.
At the other end of the colour spectrum, S. patens ‘White Trophy’ has 2in-long snowy blooms and S. microphylla ‘Lutea’ boasts creamy yellow blooms. Both grow to around 2½ft.
The flowers on compact S x jamensis ‘Sierra San Antonio’ are a winning combination of yellow and peachy tones.
Andean silver-leaf sage (Salvia discolour) is a must-have. This native of Peru has gorgeous shimmering leaves topped by 2ft stalks, which carry dark purple flowers from late summer until October. The blooms are loaded with a scent reminiscent of blackcurrants. It’s only hardy down to freezing point, though, so will need some cosseting to survive the coldest months of the year.
Most salvias are happy in sun or partial shade and will thrive in any fertile, moist but well-drained soil. S. argentea and others with fluffy silver leaves are an exception to the rule – they need the sunniest spot possible and sharply drained soil, to prevent rotting during the winter.
Aim to plant new specimens by mid-September to allow them to become established in the ground before temperatures start to fall. If you’ve gone for a tender variety, place them in a greenhouse or another light, frost-free place in mid-September. They can be planted outdoors from late May.
For my money, salvias are at their best in a modern prairie-style display alongside monarda, kniphofia, sedum and ornamental grasses. However, they’re equally at home within a traditional mixed border – plant en masse for maximum impact.
If you’re strapped for space, raise compact forms in pots filled with free-draining compost – a homemade blend of John Innes No3 multipurpose compost and a handful of horticultural grit is perfect. Start them off in small containers and move them into slightly larger ones each spring. Expect them to end up in a 12in pot after a few years.
Looking after them is easy. Cut back hardy, shrubby varieties by a third in spring and dead-head others after flowering, cutting back stems to a healthy set of leaves. If you have a sheltered garden, it’s possible to protect the roots of tender varieties from frost by mulching in the autumn. Or lift from the ground, pot up and store in a frost-free place over winter.