BetNC said:What I am is thinking maybe a salvia is the kind of plant I'm wanting to plant come planting time, to solve a problem in my garden. I need a guardian plant: salvia seems to fit my requirements: perennial for my zone, evergreen, fast-growing, easy care, full sun for about 8 hours then light shade from the heat of the day on. It would be in its own raised bed (landscapers goofed: they dumped a 3" layer of compost on top of the compacted, red clay soil instead of tilling it in!) approximately 5-6' long and 4' wide. It should be at least 2 1/2 foot tall but no more than 4-5 foot tall. While I can water it for its first year of establishment, it should get it's water needs from the rainfall. (I'm disabled, hence the limited width of the bed.)
Can y'all offer advice? variety? where to order/buy plants (locally, only bare-root salvias are available: I will have to use mail order).
@BetNC,
My first thought was a drought tolerant salvia. A Salvia farinacea plant. A lot of the other S. farinacea varieties are shorter than 2 and a half feet tall, but these two are at least 2 and a half feet tall.
Mealy Cup Sage (Salvia farinacea 'Henry Duelberg')
Mealy Cup Sage (Salvia farinacea 'Henry Duelberg')
White Mealy Cup Sage (Salvia farinacea 'Augusta Duelberg')
White Mealy Cup Sage (Salvia farinacea 'Augusta Duelberg')
Both of these can be bought at
https://www.almostedenplants.c...
https://www.almostedenplants.c...
Salvia Big Blue is a new one this year. It's a hybrid and is drought tolerant. The parentage is Salvia longispicata x Salvia farinacea.
Salvia Big Blue
You can get it at...
https://www.fbts.com/salvia-x-... I'm getting one in my spring order at Flowers By The Sea and am looking forward to growing it.
BetNC, I'm hoping I picked 3 correct salvias according to your needs. That's all I can think of at the moment.
Thank you Sherry for posting the link to Flowers By The Sea above. It's one of my favorite places to order my salvias from. I'm like "a kid in a candy store" trying to decide what to get each year from FBTS. So many beautiful goodies.
