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(Sinaloan Blue Sage) It's difficult to say which trait is more attractive about this sage -- the airy spikes of deep, true blue flowers or the fascinating spear-shaped foliage that varies from deep green to purple, forming a tidy mat.
(White Mischief Mexican Bush Sage) Profuse white blossoms and true white velvety bracts make the flowers of this South African hybrid a lovely choice for a wedding. In our experience, many of the plants sold as White Mischief are not the real thing. This tough, compact, long blooming sage is.
(Summer Skies West Texas Grass Sage) Butterflies and honeybees particularly favor this West Texas mountain native. In contrast to the true blue flowers of regular Salvia reptans, this cultivar has purple blossoms with cloud-like, lavender-to-white throats.
(Turkish Tea Sage) Sometimes an attractive plant is also medically powerful. That's true of the lavender flowered Salvia aucheri, which has strong white beelines. This Turkish native is consumed as an ingredient in teas used as folk remedies for many problems, including abdominal bloating and infections.
(Radio Red Autumn Sage) Dark calyxes support true red blossoms in Salvia greggii 'Radio Red', a 2015 introduction from the Darwin Perennials division of Ball Seed. Its tiny, smooth, elliptical leaves form a light, airy backdrop for the dramatic flowers.
(Giant Gentian Sage) What makes Salvia patens 'De Flores Gigantes' truly giant is the size of its true blue flowers. However, this variety from Argentina is tall as well.
(Dorset Lavender Gentian Sage) Large, deep lavender flowers shaped like parrot beaks make Salvia patens 'Chilcombe' distinctive in the Gentian Sage group, which is dominated by true blues.
(Autumn Sapphire West Texas Grass Sage) Butterflies and honeybees particularly favor this West Texas mountain native. In contrast to the true blue flowers of regular Salvia reptans, this cultivar has deep blue blossoms and is remarkably compact.
(Himalayan Sage or Kashmir Sage) The word "hians" in Salvia hians means "gaping" and refers to the hanging lip of this sage's flowers, which bloom from late spring through early fall. This may or may not the "true" species as it is described, hence the term aff or affnis in the name, which indicates that this plant is related to, has an affinity to, but is not identical to Salvia hians.
(Southern Mexican Sage) With its graceful, shrubby habit, purplish green leaves and intense tomato-red blooms, this herbaceous perennial makes a delightful display in your garden. It begins blooming in October and continues sporadically through the winter and into spring in frost-free areas.
(Pink Mexican Bush Sage) Although native to Mexico and Central America, this elegant variety of Salvia leucantha was hybridized in South Africa. It is compact, long blooming and profusely covered by soft pink flowers surrounded by velvety white bracts.
(Blue Ecuadorian Sage) A densely branched shrub with silvery leaves and dusky blue flowers, this rare species was once thought to be Salvia cruickshanksii. In the nursery trade, it sometimes is called Salvia 'Equador'.
(Oxford Blue Gentian Sage) Only Salvia patens 'Blue Angel' comes close to the hard-to-believe, rich gentian blue of this sage from Mexico. Oxford Blue also grows taller and spreads wider than Blue Angel.
(Red Michoacán Sage) No other Salvia has flowers that are such a deep blood red. The 3-to-4 inch long tubular blossoms of this shade-loving shrub are displayed in clusters at the ends of the stems, which have light green, textured leaves that are almost round.
(Friendship Sage) Thank you Rolando Uria of the University of Buenos Aries for this very fine plant. Discovered in 2005 at a plant show in Argentina, this truly unique hybrid sage has generated a great deal of excitement in the Salvia world.
(Thryce Flowered Sage) A wonderfly floriferous shrubby species from the mountains of Jalisco, Mexico. The individual flowers are small, but so numerous as to be uncountable. The textured foliage makes this a stand out in the garden.
(Elk Blue Hard Leaf Sage) Soft baby blue & white flowers in abundance coupled with strong growth make this an ideal new variety for hummingbird gardeners. the specific epitaph, durifolia, means hard leaf. We don't find the leaf exactly hard but it is lovely and durable.
(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.
(Bolivian Lace Leaf Sage) A large decidious woody shrub, this is a distinctive and somewhat unique Salvia species. The large clusters of deep blue flowers appear in the spring and again in the fall. A native from a tropical savanna climate in Bolivia, this species grows best in climates with year-round warmth.
(Elk Blue Note Sage) In Europe and Australia there is a popular and widely used seed grown Salvia variety called 'Blue Note'. Our offering, 'Elk Blue Note', is the result of several generations of careful breeding and selection.
(Windwalker® Desert Rose Sage) Hot pink flowers top glossy, mid-green foliage top Windwalker® Desert Rose Salvia. Due to drought resistance, Salvia x 'Desert Rose' is a great choice for dry gardens. However, this petite beauty also grows well with moderate watering.
(Guanajuato Giant Gentian Sage) At 3 inches long, the flowers of this Gentian Sage are the largest of any we grow. Guanajuato Giant is also unique for its tall, upright growth and heavily textured foliage. This is our own tested seed strain of this rare plant.
Results for True from the blog
| Cultivating Color |
| 1. True Blue Salvias You Can Rely On for Garden Serenity |
| Forget all the mournful music telling you that blue is the color of sadness. In a Salvia garden filled with hot colors, true blue is a peacemaker -- a reliable harmonizer that commands peace in the garden. This article talks a tiny bit about football, Madonna and the chemistry of true blue flowers. Then it offers a lot of true blue sages for gardens coast to coast from our Flowers by the Sea Online Nursery catalog. |
| New at FBTS |
| 2. Himalayan Sage Is the Salvia Collector’s Holy Grail: Part 1 |
| For plant collectors, a mystique surrounds rare species like Salvia hians (Himalayan or Kashmir Sage). This is especially true when there is uncertainty about what the plant should look like. Perhaps the most famous image of S. hians is a 2012 photograph of UK plant collector Chris Chadwell next to an abundantly blooming stand of large violet-blue flowers with white lower lips. Why doesn’t the Flowers by the See variety of this rare species look exactly like the plant Chadwell found — a plant that seems to be the Holy Grail of Salvia collectors? We’ll do our best to explain. |
| 3. Fall Planting is Superior for Salvias |
| Fall is the best time to plant many Salvias. Read on to find out why . . . This picture, "Autumn", was painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo in 1573. |
| Getting Started with Salvias |
| 4. Getting Started: Salvias for New England |
| Some people think you only find sage and coyotes out West. But Canis latrans, the Eastern Coyote, slipped into New England in the 1930s, and who knows when all the sages arrived? The New England Wild Flower Society notes that Lyreleaf Sage ( Salvia lyrata ) is the region's only native sage. It's one among many Salvia species grown in the Botanic Garden of Smith College in Massachusetts, which has one of the largest collections of sage in the region. Flowers by the Sea Online Plant Nursery raises hundreds of sages, including many northeastern favorites. |
| 5. Getting Started: What Are Salvias? |
| Salvias are a broad range of true sages in the mint family that grow worldwide. They include shrubs, perennials, annuals and subshrubs, which share both shrub and perennial characteristics. Flowers by the Sea, an online, mail-order Salvia nursery sells hundreds of Salvias. |
| Sacred Sages |
| 6. A Guide to Growing and Respecting Sacred White Sage |
| White Sage (Salvia apiana) is a sacred plant for Native Americans, especially tribes in its Southern California native lands. It's a challenging plant to grow. Flowers by the Sea Farm and Nursery talks about the history and religious use of Salvia apiana as well as providing a guide to growing it. |
| 7. 15 Select Salvias for Dry, Partial-Shade Gardening |
| Learning how to garden in dry shade requires mediation of the needs of all the plants involved. Dry shade is particularly abundant under trees, because they consume lots of water. Fortunately, numerous drought-resistant Salvias can handle life in dry, partial shade. Flowers by the Sea details basic considerations of dry shade gardening and identifies 15 sages for it. |
| 8. 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 |
| Cultivating Color |
| 9. Add Pale Dreamy Sages to Your List of Moon Garden Plants |
| Moon gardens contain plants with pale flowers -- especially whites -- and silvery or variegated foliage that shine in moonlight. Some gardeners plant them to glow from afar when peering into the dark through a window. Others design these gardens for nighttime rambles. A number of white-flowered sages would be excellent additions to the dreamy design of a moon garden. |
| Ask Mr. Sage |
| 10. Ask Mr. Sage: How Should I Prune my Salvias? |
| Flowers by the Sea Online Nursery specializes in Salvias and often receives questions about how to prune them. Although getting good at pruning takes practice, Salvias rebound quickly if you make mistakes. A key to successful pruning is understanding the varying needs of four main categories of sages. Ask Mr. Sage is a regular feature of the FBTS Everything Salvias Blog. |
| 11. Ask Mr. Sage: How to Control Snails |
| Ask Mr. Sage is a Q&A feature from Flowers by the Sea. This one talks about how to ward off snails and slugs safely through simple organic methods, including barriers and handpicking, as well as through careful use of iron-phosphate pesticides. It also talks about how to nurse damaged Salvias back to health. |
| 12. Ask Mr. Sage: Why FBTS Uses Foam Packing Peanuts & How to Reuse Them |
| It isn't easy being completely green. Flowers by the Sea explains why polystyrene packing peanuts are essential for shipping and what you can do with them after unpacking your orders. Ecofriendly reuses include donating them to shipping companies and using them to lighten container plantings. Ask Mr. Sage is a Q&A feature based on topics raised in calls and emails to FBTS. |
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