By carlysuko (Oceanside, California. Sunset zone 24 - Zone 10a) on Feb 27, 2020 12:49 PM concerning plant: Salvia 'Amante'
I really love this salvia! It blooms pretty much year round for me here in Oceanside, Southern California. The blooms are a brilliant fuchsia color with contrasting black calyxes. The leaves are quite beautiful. The older leaves can develop a dark reddish color. While being marketed as just like Amistad but with different colored flowers, they are actually quite different. Amante grows much taller than Amistad. In my zone it has reached about 7 ft and still growing, it stays only about 3-4 ft in width though. I grow mine in a pot at the back of the border and it flourishes. The stems seem stronger than Amistad and less prone to breakage. I love this plant, and highly recommend it. So do the hummingbirds! ? ?
Several on-line plant libraries list 'Black & Blue' Salvia as hardy in zones 8-10. This beautiful perennial has, however, been a highly successful perennial in Oklahoma City [zone 7A] for a number of years.
One example: The original one in my garden was purchased 6 years ago as a one gallon plant. Last summer the clump of foliage was 3.5 feet in diameter and the height of the flowering stems was 4.5 feet.
In zone 7 success is best achieved when the plant is heavily mulched and watered during dry periods in the winter.
This salvia prefers well-drained soils. It will tend to be floppy if given too much shade or overly rich soil. Division is best done in the spring.
The height of the plant can be controlled by removing the top third of each stem when they are about 15 inches tall. This will delay flowering somewhat... but the plant blooms throughout the growing season [with deadheading] so this should not be a huge problem.
Practical drought-tolerant shrub for arid Mediterranean (dry summer, winter rainfall) gardens. Leaves are great for cooking and flowers provide nice purple accents during winter (our rainy season), attracting bees. Easy to start from cuttings. This plant prefers good drainage and responds well to periodic pruning (or will grow into a mangy bush if you let it).
The newest salvia in the FlowerKisser™ series from High Country Gardens.
Selected by chief horticulturist David Salman, who is the former founder of HCG. This one has beautiful, deep rosy-pink flowers.
Beautiful red flowers in the Spires family of salvias for the 2020 season by Flowers By The Sea. FBTS is located in Elk, CA, where they grow, sell and specialize in salvias.
Be very careful with Salvia glutinosa. The Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management is currently trying to manage a 100+ acre site which is a near monoculture of Sticky Sage which escaped from a nearby garden. This rapidly spreads in sun and shade along forest floors in both dry and wet conditions.
When I planted this salvia I wasn't planting it for the hummingbirds; I just liked the color. i have found out this summer that they are gaga over this salvia, they can't get enough of it! I always thought hummingbirds prefer red; at least that is what a lot of books say. I guess hummingbirds don't read the books! This salvia is pretty tough, although I have noticed it seems to need a little more water than other salvias. (I have 9 varieties). If it is deadheaded, it blooms well through the fall.
I originally purchased this plant 20 years ago, and it willingly re-seeds itself every year. I have seen comments that it does not grow true from seed, but I can compare pictures I took then (with a throw away camera) to pictures I took recently with my I Pad and I can't see any difference. I have given away literally hundreds of seedlings; it is (to me) the ultimate pass along plant. Where I live the ruby-throated hummingbirds go nuts over it; they seem to prefer it over many other plants. It is a very tough plant, and drought resistant when established.
This is new on the market from Proven Winners, a large company that sells so many cultivars of annuals and perennials. Like some other cultivars in the Rockin Series, this is a hybrid salvia that must have one of the parents being Salvia guaranitica, the Anise-flowered Sage that is native to Brazil and that region, as it is so similar. Its leaves seem to be a little more rounded; otherwise no big difference. This cultivar has fuchsia-colored flowers, of course. It is a wonderful, easy, big perennial that attracts hummingbirds, like the similar Black And Blue Anise-flowered Sage.
This is new on the market from Proven Winners, a large company that sells so many cultivars of annuals and perennials. I bought one of this cultivar of a hybrid Salvia at a large, diverse, garden center in southeast Pennsylvania called Gardener's Nursery. One of the parents must be Salvia guaranitica, the Anise-scented Sage from Brazil and around there, as it looks almost identical. The hybrid's leaves are a little more rounded in shape; otherwise I don't see any great difference. It can be grown as a wonderful annual in the North just like 'Black And Blue' Anise-scented Sage.
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.
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.
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.
Add a plant
Search by name
Search by type
Plant Combinations