Forums→Agastache and Salvias

Kermit Carter of Flowers By The Sea introduced this new beautiful salvia. For sale for the 2021 season. FBTS sells, grows, and specializes in salvias. FBTS is located in Elk, CA.

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I have been growing this annual salvia since 2000, and it has re seeded reliably ever since. Although the data base entry states that it may not come true from re seeding, I have find it to be exactly the same as the original plant I planted in 2000. I have given away hundreds of seedlings, making this a top pass along plant. It takes heat and humidity with ease, and once established is fairly drought resistant. As long as it is kept dead headed, it will bloom until a hard frost takes it down in the late fall or winter. This is a very valuable plant for anyone wanting to attract butterflies or bees to their garden.

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I would not have known this species of perennial flower unless I found a few tags in the pots of plants being sold at a northern Delaware nursery in USDA Zone 7a. This species is usually noted being cold hardy to Zone 8 or 9 depending on the source, except for one that noted Zone 7. It is native to tropical and subtropical pine forests in central and eastern Mexico. This cultivar of 'Santa Barbara' was found in a garden in the Californian city and it is more compact growing than the mother species. The foliage is evergreen in warmer climates. I am not sure if it stays that way up in Zone 7. Its roots and crown probably survive in Zone 7, unless the nursery is selling it as an annual. One is supposed to cut the plant down in early spring. it is a good-looking forb.

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Yes, this mother species is native to Texas and Mexico where it is a short-lived perennial living about 5 years long. It grows about 1.5 to 3 feet high. It bears mint-like two-lipped violet-blue flowers. Its grayish-green leaves are to 3 inches long. It gets its scientific species name of "farinacea" from the Latin word for flour or meal because it has white powdery felting on its upper stems and calyx. It is pollinated by bees, bumblebees, and some butterflies. A good number of more compact cultivars have been developed with a range of hues of purple-blue flowers and some white blooming cultivars also.

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'Rhea' has been a common cultivar of Mealycup Sage for a long time in the Midwest and Eastern US. It is shorter than the similar cultivar of 'Victoria Blue' and a little darker in flower color. It usually grows about 12 to 18 inches high. It is more resistant to storm damage by strong winds and rain than the similar cultivar mentioned.

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