Salvia: varieties, growing and uses

Three ways to choose colour

Caradonna combines violet-purple spikes with dark stems, providing a clear vertical form for a repeated row. Hot Lips produces red-and-white lipped flowers on a loose shrub. Salvia patens is a different botanical species with large blue flowers and a greater need for winter protection. The contrast between spikes, loose lipped flowers and large blue blooms is more interesting than three nearly identical purple plants.

Repeat a perennial selection through the planting

Small groups of the same perennial salvia calm path edges. Allow new-shoot space around clumps and low neighbours not smothering bases. Remove old spikes as first flowering fades and observe regrowth. Further flowering depends partly on weather and condition.

A pot as a winter option

Pots help sensitive types avoid autumn lifting of large border root balls. Use holes and airy soil, not constantly full saucers. Winter positions need frost protection, light and ventilation. Keep soil more sparingly moist during dormancy.

Look before you cut

Look for living buds in spring. Woody shrubs and plants regrowing from ground differ greatly after winter. Do not cut all brown branches to soil automatically. Note group and protection in your garden to make future maintenance useful.

Scent, flavour and use

This selection concerns ornamental salvias. Do not equate them with edible culinary sage, Salvia officinalis. No culinary flavour or edibility is claimed for these flowers.

Care, cutting and harvesting

Choose sun and loose, well-drained soil. Water young plants while they establish. Protect sensitive species before winter; cold and wet together pose a major risk. Check hardiness for each type.

Remove old flower spikes on perennial herbaceous types. Prune shrubby forms such as Hot Lips in line with new spring growth and remove frost damage. Protect sensitive species from cold before considering hard cutting back.

Cut ornamental stems for a small bouquet or leave the flowers on the plant. Keep cultivar names when collecting or buying new material; seedlings are not automatically the same named cultivar.