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(St. Charles Day Mountain Sage) Especially in spring and fall, masses of red-violet flowers bloom amid the silvery green foliage of Salvia microphylla 'San Carlos Festival'. Put this one into the "must have" column.
(People's Park Mountain Sage) Sometimes nature can be rebellious. This is one the Mountain Sages known as the Turbulent Sixties Series developed from an outlaw cultivar of the Southwestern native Salvia microphylla. Monterey Bay Nursery (MBN) named their accidental hybrid ‘Berzerkeley.’
(Telegraph Avenue Dwarf Mountain Sage) Here’s another member of the Turbulent Sixties Series of Southwestern Mountain Sages (Salvia microphylla), which developed from one of nature’s rebels – an accidental hybrid that Monterey Bay Nursery (MBN) named ‘Berzerkeley’ after finding it taking a stand in the nursery’s gravel paving.
(Blast Pink Mountain Sage) Long blooming Salvia microphylla 'Heatwave Blast' produces prolific quantities of large, dusky salmon-pink blossoms and dense, mid-green foliage.
Results for five from the blog
| Hummingbirds in the Garden |
| 1. 5 Big Orange Bedding Plant Beauties for Hummingbirds |
| You'll hear a lot about red when planting annuals for wildlife gardens, because hummingbirds garden love red, tubular, nectar-rich flowers. But orange is another hummingbird favorite not to be neglected. Flowers by the Sea suggests five long blooming species for your landscape that begin shouting "Orange, orange, orange" in spring when hummingbirds are big-time hungry now, now, now as they head north for the nesting season. |
| Xeric Choices |
| 2. Drought Praise: 5 Blue-Tag Beauties for Dry Gardens |
| If you live in a semi-arid climate where rain is a vague memory and the soil is crunchy with gravel, you may find yourself praising the color and resilience of blue-tag plants from Flowers by the Sea. Not all of our drought tolerant plants fall into the blue-tag category. Yet ones that do are extremely capable at surviving with little water. FBTS explains plant care and offers five favorite drought-resistant species. |
| 3. Drought Praise: Around the World with Sunny Groundcovers |
| Bring on the sun. Bring on the heat. Bring on the drought-resistant Salvia groundcovers.Flowers by the Sea offers a short list of top groundcovers from around the world for fighting drought. They come from Asia, California, Mexico and Morocco in lavender, purple and pink to do battle against the boring brown caused by water shortage. Similar to gravel, bark chip or pine needle mulch, these groundcovers discourage weeds, cool soil, conserve moisture and add color to gardens. They are living mulch. |
| Quick Digs |
| 4. Quick Digs: Salvia Groundcovers Suppress Weeds |
| Quick Digs is a serial containing short posts focused on a central issue about Salvia gardening. The topic for the first series is Salvia groundcovers for weed control, and this is the first article. Great groundcovers help conserve soil moisture and leave little room for weeds to grow. This is true of many colorful, fragrant Salvias that spread freely. However, it may be that the essential oils creating the pleasant aromas of many Salvias are also helpful in suppressing weeds. Many researchers refer to this apparent trait as the “Salvia phenomenon.” |
| New at FBTS |
| 5. Meet Salvia rosmarinus: A New Addition to the Sage Genus |
| Bees adore rosemary, the powerfully resinous Mediterranean native known both as a groundcover spilling over garden slopes and as an accent or tall hedge plant. Plant scientists who closely examined its DNA suggest moving the Rosmarinus genus into the Salvia genus. Flowers by the Sea now grows two kinds of Salvia rosmarinus. |
| Hummingbirds in the Garden |
| 6. Annual Salvias that Hummingbirds Adore |
| If a hummingbird could talk, he or she would tell you it's hard work packing for a long journey. Consuming mightily from dawn to dusk, day after day, hummingbirds double their weight before migration. They can't afford to run out of fuel before their next meal. To help hummingbirds, particularly on their northward journey, home gardeners can celebrate the arrival of spring by planting gardens filled with early blooming Salvias and companion plants that are excellent annuals in areas where winters are too chilly for survival as perennials. |
| Ask Mr. Sage |
| 7. Ask Mr. Sage: How to Combat Whiteflies Safely |
| Ask Mr. Sage is our blog's new question-and-answer feature, based on calls and emails received at Flowers by the Sea. This question concerns how to safely rid Salvias of Whiteflies and their eggs. |
| 8. Ask Mr. Sage: How to Water Desert Plants |
| Overwatering harms desert plants more than underwatering. When growing them, you need to consider the quantity, duration and timing of watering. Excellent soil drainage is also essential. This article talks about how to identify overwatering and establish an effective watering schedule. Ask Mr. Sage is a Q&A feature based on topics raised in calls and emails to FBTS. |
| Hummingbirds in the Garden |
| 9. Hummingbirds in the Garden: Attracting Hummingbirds to Your Garden |
| Planting a hummingbird garden filled with nectar-rich, long-blooming Salvias aids preservation of hummingbird species that migrate each year throughout North America. It also gives you a front-row seat to a fascinating aerobatics show. Backyard islands of colorful sages are like gas stations for hummingbirds' long-distance journeys. Salvias can keep your garden whirring with the helicopter-like flight of hummingbirds from spring through autumn and -- in warm climates -- into winter. |
| Celebrity Salvias |
| 10. Celebrity Salvias: Fuzzy, Fancy Salvia Oxyphora |
| A bright, cherry-licorice red, the large, fuzzy blossoms of Salvia oxyphora would make anyone stop and pay attention. Commonly known as Fuzzy Bolivian Sage or Bolivian Spearhead Sage, S. oxyphora has equally unusual foliage that fools the eye. At a distance, the plant’s lance-shaped leaves appear to be a smooth, glassy green. However, they are covered with tiny clear-to-white hairs. They’re also large -- growing up to 5 inches long and 2 inches wide at maturity -- and taper to long, sharp points. It was first collected near Cochabamba, Bolivia, by German botanist Otto Kunst in 1892 |
| Getting Started with Salvias |
| 11. Getting Started: Salvias for the Coastal Southeast |
| True sages are members of the Salvia genus and number in the hundreds. They are native to a wide variety of environments worldwide, which is why some are ideal for the dry gardens of California and others can handle the abundant moisture of the American Southeast. Flowers by the Sea raises many sages that grow well in the Southeast, including some that are either native to the region or have jumped fences from gardens into the wild. |
| 12. Getting Started: Salvias for the Midwest |
| Severe winter chill and summer heat coupled with extreme humidity are challenges that gardeners face in the Midwest. Many Salvias are excellent choices as long-blooming annuals in the region while others -- ones that can withstand cold winters -- are reliable perennials. Flowers by the Sea Online Plant Nursery explains the confusing Midwest boundaries from Ohio west to Kansas and North Dakota south to Missouri. It talks about the range of USDA Plant Hardiness Zones in the region and the kinds of sages that grow best there. |
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