Welcome to Flowers by the Sea, a family run mail-order plant nursery. We've been supplying gardeners with superior plants for over 25 years. Our plants are large, healthy and guaranteed to please.

The genus Salvia is our specialty, and we have the largest selection in the United States. We currently offer 497 species, hybrids and varieties - along with numerous outstanding hummingbird, butterfly and bee plants.

Each and every one has been extensively tested & evaluated before we list them here. We're proud of the quality of what we grow, and Unconditionally Guarantee your complete satisfaction with everything we sell.

Have you used the Salvia Finder? It's the first place to go to find the perfect Salvias. Explore by color, size, exposure, Zone and more. An easy and fun way to plan your garden plantings.

Read what our customers say about our service, quality and selection.

How do you grow Salvias?
Read our Everything Salvias Blog!

Our Everything Salvias Blog offers hundreds of detailed articles about sages. You'll find: how-to articles, interviews with Salvia gardeners and experts, landscape design ideas, plant profiles, stories about cooking with sage, shade gardening suggestions, video tutorials and wildlife habitat advice, including tips for bee, butterfly and hummingbird gardening. Getting Started is one of 18 categories you can click on.

Some of the Getting Started with Salvias topics we cover are . . .

Browse all 18 Categories of our Everything Salvias Blog

Mr Sage speaks up on Shipping Charges

Dear Mr. Sage,

I'm new to Flowers by the Sea and really like your catalog. But while looking at another online nursery's catalog, I saw that they offer free shipping. But they also charge more than you do for the Salvias I want to buy. Why don't you offer free shipping?

Sincerely,
Careful Shopper

Dear Careful Shopper,

You know what they say about there being no such thing as a free lunch. It's also true that free shipping doesn't exist. We like the New Yorker cartoon published here, because -- pardon the wordplay -- it sums up the myth of free shipping.

Mail order retailers all must find a way to cover the cost of shipping. To paraphrase Shannon Wheeler's cartoon caption, some online nurseries fold the expense of shipping into the cost of they charge for their plants. We don't do that.

Another survival technique is to decrease shipping costs by severely trimming plants to make more fit in small boxes. We don't do that because it harms the quality of plants.

Instead, we created a customized delivery rate schedule with our shipper, UPS. To minimize plant prices for everyone, FBTS shipping fees increase as order size grows and delivery distance from our farm increases. Yet the larger your order is, the smaller our shipping fee is per plant.

FBTS doesn't make money on shipping and tries not to lose it either. "Free shipping" would force us to significantly increase plant prices, because we would never decrease the quality of our plants or delivery system.

We like to think that our solution is a formula for fair pricing.

Thanks so much for your question,

Mr. Sage

Visit this site on your desktop for more information.

New Arrivals & Recently Back in Stock
What's Great this Week?

We test every plant before we offer it for sale. Your success is our success. You can be confident that these new introductions are dependable garden plants." - Kermit Carter, General Manager

Change is constant in horticulture. Selecting the best new plants is daunting even in one genus, especially Salvia, which contains about 900 species of true sages worldwide. Our New Arrivals section showcases the latest sages and companions in our online catalog whether new to commercial horticulture or only to our gardens. Please contact us if you have questions or gardening experiences to share about these plants.

Cantua buxifolia 'Hot Pants'

$11.50

(Bicolor Sacred Flower of the Incas) Four-inch-long trumpet blossoms in a neon combination of red-orange and hot pink contrast with mid-green foliage in Cantua buxifolia 'Hot Pants'. This is a hybrid of a long blooming, South American native.

Qty:

Salvia leucocephala

$16.00

(White Headed Sage) One of the most visually stunning members of the genus, this large growing, tender, winter blooming species from the mountains of Ecuador will turn every head with its furry white calyxes and brilliant magenta red flowers.

Qty:

Salvia x 'Skyscraper Orange'

$11.50

(Skyscraper Orange Sage) Brand new for 2018, this beautiful plant is compact, easy to grow in the shade and full of flowers all season long. They make outstanding container plants as well.

Qty:

Salvia x 'Arctic Blaze'

$11.50

(Arctic Blaze® Purple Sage) Bred to be a strong grower while remaining hardy, this new hybrid Sage has some of the best characteristics of both of it's famous parents. Pollen from Salvia microphylla 'San Carlos Festival' was used on flowers of Salvia lycioides x greggii 'Ultra Violet' and one of the resultant seedlings became Arctic Blaze Purple.

Qty:

Salvia trijuga

$11.50

(san ye shu wei cao) So what do all those Pinyin words mean in this sage’s common name? We’ll give you an answer to the best of our ability in a minute. Meanwhile, we need to note that this medicinal Asian sage has handsome foliage and deep violet flowers.

Qty:

"Many of these are in very short supply, so act fast if you find something you like!" - Vikki Carter, Nursery Manager

Each week, we walk through the nursery with a clipboard in hands, looking for the best we have to offer. All of the plants listed here are "prime", ready to succeed in your garden. In some cases they are just coming into bloom. Or they may be at the perfect stage to transplant. Or the seasonal foliage color may be at its peak.

In any case, the list changes every week, so check back for the latest and greatest from Flowers by the Sea.

Salvia greggii 'Lipstick'

$11.50

(Lipstick Autumn Sage) Similar to a little bit of lipstick on a pretty face, the rosy flowers of this hardy, heat-tolerant sage add a finishing touch to a perennial Salvia border. The creamy pinkish-red blossoms have a contrasting white throat and are cupped by rosy brown calexes on long spikes.

Qty:

Salvia semiatrata

$12.50

(Pine Mountain Sage) Small but numerous, violet and deep purple flowers surrounded by pink bracts are sprinkled throughout this well-branched,shrubby sage like confections. This is one of the showiest Salvias we grow.

Qty:

Salvia nipponica 'BSWJ5829'

$12.50

(Kyushu Woodland Sage) We are in love with this short forest sage from Kyushu, Japan. Its clusters of large creamy flowers pale as fresh-churned butter begin blooming in September. Even when not blooming, its foliage is showy in a shady garden.

Qty:

Salvia microphylla 'Royal Bumble'

$11.50

(Royal Bumble Mountain Sage) Almost black, the stems and calyxes of this UK hybrid form a pleasing contrast with its medium-size scarlet flowers and glossy green leaves. Bloom time is spring to fall. This Mountain Sage suckers freely and forms a dense clump.

Qty:

Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips'

$11.50

(Hot Lips Sage) What a winner for fascinating flowers! Hot Lips Sage has solid red, solid white and two-tone combinations all on the same plant and often at the same time.The variations are random. You might say that this shrubby sage is mixed-up, but its confused coloring makes it highly desirable.

Qty:

Salvia microphylla 'Heatwave Blaze'

$11.50

(Heatwave Red Mountain Sage) Compact and small, this Mountain Sage is another fine groundcover for Southern California, the Southwest and Texas. Similar to Salvia microphylla 'Heatwave Glimmer', it not only survives but thrives in extreme heat.

Qty:

Salvia lycioides x greggii 'Ultra Violet'

$11.50

(Ultra Violet Hybrid Sage) Hardy is a word bandied about by gardeners and nurserymen. Its use is often exaggerated. But this fine hybrid deserves to be called "the hardiest Autumn Sage." It's Zone-5 hardy, drought resistant and has lovely, soft purple flowers. Ultra Violet is a winner.

Qty:

Salvia greggii 'Texas Wedding'

$11.50

(Texas Wedding White Autumn Sage) This is our best white-flowered Autumn Sage. It is compact, hardy and blooms abundantly. We love it as a contrast to the generally bright colors of its group. Texas Wedding seems to always be blooming, with massive displays in spring and fall.

Qty:

Salvia guaranitica 'Purple Haze'

$11.50

(Purple Haze Sage) The very best purple Anise Scented Sage, period - the result of years of careful breeding aimed at developing a reliable, free flowering and easy to grow variety suitable for growing countrywide.

Qty:

Salvia miltiorrhiza

$12.50

(Red Sage, Chinese Sage, Dan-shen) The bright red, finger-like roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza have a long history in traditional Chinese herbal medicine. We offer this important plant on a limited basis.