I bought this at a plant sale in Washington from a small grower who specialized in Salvias. I was admiring his Salvias, and told him I had sworn off the entire genus now that I garden on clay. Not a single one I had tried would make it through the winter. He told me to buy this species Salvia. It survives on clay, and even can take a bit of shade. So true! It does look a bit weedy, with big basal leaves, but all is forgiven when it blooms, which it does profusely and for months! It's been 3 years and it is very reliable.

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"Salvia forsskaolei is a herbaceous perennial shrub endemic to the southeastern Balkan peninsula, ranging from Bulgaria and Greece to the Black Sea coastline of Turkey. It grows up to 6,000 feet elevation in broad-leaved and coniferous forests, meadows, and on steep banks. It was named after Finnish explorer and naturalist Peter Forsskål, a student of Carl Linnaeus who collected plants in southwest Arabia in the 18th century.

The plant grows into large basal clumps 2 feet tall and wide, with hairy leaves that are parsley-green in spring, turning dark green in summer. The flower whorls are few and widely spaced, with the flower a showy two-lipped violet-blue color that has white streaks with yellow markings on the lower lip."

Taken from wikipedia's page at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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I generally consider most salvias to be deer resistant.....but, deer have recently munched one of my two young forsskaolei down to the ground.

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