Agastache and Salvias forum

A 2019 Xera Plants introduction.

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I live in southeast Texas and this plant excels in our climate and weather conditions. It blooms just about all year and so far has been pest free.I started with one plant and then could not find any more. The manager of the garden center where I purchased it told me to try to root some cuttings, which I did, and I now have 5 healthy plants. It is great in a pollinator garden- the bees love it.

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I really love this forb that is an annual flower in the northern USA because it dies with the first strong frost in the autumn, though it is a tropical perennial from Brazil. Real annuals are like Corn that dies after bearing seed. Scarlet Sage is a reliable annual that is easy to deadhead for better looks and bloom. What I really like are the older, larger cultivars that are 18 to 36 inches high. Unfortunately, the last several years I have not been able to find these larger plants. Instead, I keep finding very dwarf cultivars that get about 10 to 12 inches high, maybe 14 inches. I want bigger not just because of size preference, but these newer small cultivars don't seen to really attract the hummingbirds. I think they have a slightly different flower structure. The female Ruby-throated Hummingbird who comes by my yard in summer looks at the little red sages, but she just goes to the Black & Blue Anise-flowered Sages instead. Back in the 1970's I was looking at the large 2 to 3 feet high Scarlet Sages at the front of my father's house, and I swatted at some big insect near my head, fortunately missing. It was a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and I quickly left and let him feed in peace and happiness.

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I have planted this very dwarf cultivar or a similar cultivar of Scarlet Sage a few times in pots on my back deck to make the Ruby-throated Hummingbird happy for a nectar source. She looks at it, but does not do anything with it. She does love the Black & Blue Anise-flowered Sage a lot and also the orange flowered Cigar-Plant Cuphea. I remember how Hummingbirds just adored the larger cultivars of Scarlet Sage decades ago that were anywhere from 18 to 36 inches high. I don't know why the gardening public decided to just go for these dwarf cultivars. The bigger plants look better and are much more glorious. This species should never be grown under 18 inches high. These new dwarf cultivars seem to have a different flower structure in them that may be inhibiting the hummingbirds. I don't think I have seen any kind of bee interested in this either. Otherwise, it is a pretty little plant, but I want bigger.

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Each May I go to one of two conventional, traditional nurseries (garden centers) that sell many good annual flowers that are not sold at any of the big box stores with a garden section as Home Depot, Lowes, K-Mart, etc. and I buy several Black & Blue Sages in pots. I plant them in very big pots on the back deck or close to it, not only for its beauty, but for the female Ruby-throated Hummingbird that comes by during the summer. She really loves the tubular, dark blue-purple flowers of this annual. (She also loves the tubular, orange flowers of the Cigar-Plant Cuphea that I also plant nearby. She does not like the tubular, red flowers of the new dwarf cultivars of the Scarlet Sage. Hummingbirds used to adore the old, large cultivars of Salvia splendens that grew about 2 to 3 feet high.)

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