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(COOL Wild Strawberry Anise Scented Sage) Prepare yourself for a heaping serving of large flowers the delicious color of strawberry ice cream when you plant Salvia COOL Wild Strawberry.

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Results for yourself from the blog

New at FBTS
1. New Product Filtering Tool Helps You with Decision Making
Flowers by the Sea now offers a powerful, do-it-yourself, product-filtering tool that makes plant selection easier and faster. It sets up a matrix of choices to help customers sort possible selections for their gardens based on USDA cold hardiness zones, sun exposure, mature height and spread of plants, soil type and water needs. This article explains how the tool works and provides examples of how to use it.
Ask Mr. Sage
2. Ask Mr. Sage: First-Aid for Salvia Frost Damage
Harsh winter weather in areas that normally have mild conditions can bring unwelcome surprises, including the death of favorite plants. This article talks about how and when to remediate frost damage to favorite Salvias in warmer USDA Cold Hardiness Zones. It concludes with a sidebar about a harmful cold snap in California's Bay Area that killed plants as well as birds in 1972 and which changed planting choices at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. Ask Mr. Sage is a regular feature that is based on topics raised in calls and emails we receive at Flowers by the Sea.
3. August in the Salvia Garden
August is a time when many sages grow rapidly and feed a frenzy of pollinators in need of rich nectar and pollen. It's hot, so you have to be careful not to let plants or yourself wilt. Here are some tips for tasks from watering to planning when tending your garden this month.
4. Battles in the Salvia Garden: Controlling Spider Mites - Part I
Salvias often suffer when spider mites become legion in gardens. This is Part 1 of a two-part series about understanding and overcoming these dangerous pests. As summer temperatures rise, so do the numbers of the family Tetranychidae -- spider mites -- especially if conditions are dry. Controlling spider mites in your Salvia garden may be as simple as keeping plants hydrated and regularly spraying the little nippers off foliage. Or it may take a number of interventions, including biological controls, such as predatory mites, as well as the use of insecticidal soaps, oils and pesticides
5. Battles in the Salvia Garden: Controlling Spider Mites - Part II
Pollinators lose important food sources when Salvias and other nectar-rich flowers are destroyed by spider mites. This is Part 2 of a two-part series about understanding and overcoming these dangerous pests. Along with the non-chemical interventions described in Part 1 of this series, gardeners sometimes need the help of predatory insects and mites, insecticidal soaps and horticultural oils. Pesticides called miticides may also eventually be necessary, but should be the last resort.
Container Gardening
6. Container Gardening Basics: Watering Potted Plants
Container plantings are welcome islands of color and fragrance whether in small or large yards. Their emergence signals the pleasures of summer, including icy glasses of lemonade. Potted plants have a mighty thirst, as well. Container garden plans for Salvias and companion plants need to factor in greater frequency of watering than the plants would receive in-ground.
New at FBTS
7. New at FBTS: Vermilion Bluffs ® Mexican Sage
A 'mass of scarlet awesomeness' is one way that Denver Botanic Gardens Senior Curator Panayoti Kelaidis describes Vermilion Bluffs® Mexican Sage (Salvia darcyi 'Pscarl') at his Prairie Break website. Unlike so many Southwestern sages, Vermilion Bluffs is surprisingly cold hardy as well as being drought tolerant. Its common name is taken from the spectacular red bluffs of the Vermillion Basin Wilderness in Northwestern Colorado, an area redolent with the scent of sage on hot days. But the plant is native to the Nuevo Leon area of Mexico's eastern Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. The story of how its parent plant arrived at Denver Botanic Gardens (DBG) and, eventually, at Flowers by the Sea is one of diaspora.
Cultivating Color
8. Pantone Pageant: Emerald Designer Salvias
Emerald and other cool shades of green are among the hot colors for 2013, according to Pantone, a design-industry leader. Flowers by the Sea doesn't generally think of greens or of any colors in nature as being in or out. However, we think it is fun and fresh to consider garden design from a different perspective. Emerald is Pantone's top color for the year. This article about emerald-colored Salvias begins a pageant of sorts down the runway of our blog, showing how the Pantone color matching system can be used to shape landscaping decisions.
Portraits in Gardening
9. Portraits in Gardening: Ward Dasey
Portraits in Gardening is a blog series from Flowers by the Sea that profiles customers who are passionate about the Salvia genus. This article focuses on wildlife gardener, birder and dedicated volunteer Ward W. Dasey III, who grows Salvias at New Jersey's Palmyra Cove Nature Park. Dasey and nature-loving friends proposed the park to make bird watching easier on the Delaware River.
Quick Digs
10. Quick Digs: Inventorying Salvias and Tools for Spring Gardening
This is the first article in our new Quick Digs series about preparing for spring in Salvia gardens. As spring approaches and daylight grows longer, first steps for preparing Salvia gardening include recording sages already planted before planning new purchases, repotting cuttings and seedlings, inventorying garden tools and turning the compost heap. When the first new growth arrives, you'll be prepared to remove weeds before they choke sages and other perennials that are re-emerging.
11. Quick Digs: Prepping and Overwintering in Salvia Gardens
In autumn, even while the days are bright and balmy, you may be wondering how to help favorite Salvias survive local winter temperatures and freeze-thaw cycles. Although we can't offer you foolproof solutions, we provide ideas in this first article of our Quick Digs series on winter mulching Salvias and overwintering them both outside and indoors.
Salvia Small Talk
12. Salvia Small Talk: A Bodacious Butterfly Name
You may have better luck finding the Two-tailed Tiger Swallowtail among your Salvias than pronouncing its many long names.