Proven Winners is putting this knockout on garden center shelves this spring (2019). This bright magenta is a "breakthrough" color, according to the PW website. I'm not sure if it's a new cross between S. longispicata and S. farinacea or another induced sport from the 'Indigo Spires' line. According to the info on this database, there was an initial cross that gave us Salvia hyb. 'Indigo Spires', then a irradiation induced sport, 'Mystic Spires', and a colchine induced sport, 'Rockin the Blues'. For sure, it's nothing like the pale pink or lavender pink colors sometimes found in S. farinacea, and there's nothing remotely pink in S. longispicata varieties.

2 replies

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.

Reply to this comment