Purple & Bloom Salvia

This is taken from my backyard planters. This is a new salvia I tried this summer that I found at my favorite local nursery, and the hummingbirds love it. So even though it's a bit taller than I would have liked, it will be back every summer for them.

Great banner Nancy!

What a dramatic purple that is! Thanks for the color treat, Nancy.

love that purple banner Nancy!

Royal banner, Murky. Nicely done.
What's the name?

Thank you everyone! The name actually is "Purple & Bloom Salvia" by BallFlora. I now take pics of all the plant ID tags to save so I'm certain about names after forgetting what a particular variety was one year. It's one I want to try to overwinter in my basement this year in case I can't find it locally for next summer. The calyx is near black, which makes them stand out even more, and the hummers really loved them. Here's some info:

https://www.ballfloraplant.com...

Here's the plant tag, and it really did bloom from when I bought it in early spring and it's still blooming now.

Thanks, Nancy! It's on my plant list for 2023.

This site says it's cold hardy in Zones 8-9-10. I'm envious that you could keep it year-round!

Does it spread through the ground?
We have a volunteer cobalt blue similar to yours that is very drought tolerant,
and spreads via rhizomes (?). It just showed up several years ago, and I
propagated it by division, but it's well established now on its own.

From the 2nd site I linked that listed hardiness zones:

"It has been known to spread by rhizomes but under most conditions stays neatly where it's put and where hardy will return year after year."

I think both sites say it's similar to Black & Bloom, which is a blue salvia that spreads by rhizomes. Can't be certain it's what you have, but it sounds like probably yes. Getting more jealous!

Edit to add a link to Black & Bloom Salvia:
https://www.monrovia.com/black...

Love the rich purple color. Excellent banner.
I had a similar black and purple salvia a few years ago (I think it was 'Amistad'), and I tried to overwinter it inside, but it didn't work. I hope you have success. I have a black and blue one ('Black And Blue' ?) that is growing next to the house/chimney, and it survives the winters just fine.

That's not very encouraging, I've got about a dozen of them I was going to try to overwinter. I'll have to dig them out of the 20" planters, probably have to do some root pruning and put them in 12" planters so I can move them down and back up the stairs in spring. I thought just let them go dormant from the cold but before the soil mix freezes, do some top pruning as well and just enough water through winter to keep them alive. I'll have to do more reading up about it and see if what I'm planning will even work.

Moving them into a smaller pot might work. I can't remember for sure what I did, but I think I had removed all of the soil and had the roots in some peat moss maybe??? I had followed some instructions I had found somewhere. Wish I could remember now what I did.

Well, I searched around for instructions. I found something that suggests keeping roots in soil as one method and removing soil as another method. Link: https://www.fbts.com/quick-dig...

I think slightly moist peat moss would be safer than dirt, but would
try both ways.

Thank you both for that info. I've even thought of putting a plastic tent over them all to help keep them from drying out through winter. I'll have to decide soon.

I had to add another .11 acorns to even it up.

Nancy, do you have a place outside where you can put the pots in a group and then cover with an enormous pile of leaves? That sounds a lot easier to me than root pruning and dragging heavy wet pots to the basement and back up later. The pile of leaves should keep everything underneath from freezing. Putting a tarp over could help keep the leaves in place, but if the pile is significant, getting too wet shouldn't be a problem. Some people turn pots sideways to do this but I never have when I've tried it. I would do a lot more of this if I could get enough leaves.

I wonder if you could put some rhizomes on damp paper towels in
a ziplock in the refrigerator in the crisper with the celery, etc ?

purpleinopp said: I had to add another .11 acorns to even it up.

Nancy, do you have a place outside where you can put the pots in a group and then cover with an enormous pile of leaves? That sounds a lot easier to me than root pruning and dragging heavy wet pots to the basement and back up later. The pile of leaves should keep everything underneath from freezing. Putting a tarp over could help keep the leaves in place, but if the pile is significant, getting too wet shouldn't be a problem. Some people turn pots sideways to do this but I never have when I've tried it. I would do a lot more of this if I could get enough leaves.

Thank you for evening them up! We get down to 0° here, I don't think a pile of leaves would protect them from that. Maybe a barricade of straw bales around them? But even then, the ground freezes, I really don't think I could protect them enough outdoors. I could try a couple behind the garage where they wouldn't ruin the grass (ruin as in make it bare mud instead of the creeping charlie weeds it is! ) just to see if it would work. And yes, I know from trying to keep hydrangea branches alive that bloom on old wood that the leaves blow away, would have to come up with something to keep them in place. If I knew that would work, I could roll the 20" planters back there as well and just cover them up. That gives me more to think about!

EscondidoCal said: I wonder if you could put some rhizomes on damp paper towels in
a ziplock in the refrigerator in the crisper with the celery, etc ?

My crisper is so full of seeds right now, I'd have to evict the few packages of cheese that still fit to do that! I think only 1 of them though might have rhizomes, the Purple & Bloom. The other 11 would be just regular roots, so it wouldn't save me a lot of trouble about moving them in the basement.

Definitely more to think about! Thank you both.

Good luck!
I haven't found a distributor yet, but will ask my local nursery.