Salvia Plant List

Salvia Splendens

• Salvia splendens is a native of Brazil and is popularly grown as a warm weather annual. The plant grows to a mature height of 8 inches to 3 feet and has dark green, elliptical, tooth-edged foliage. The two-lipped flowers bloom on spikes in a range of colors, including salmon, white, purple and bright red. Plant in full sun in areas with cooler climates. In hot-weathered regions, plant where there is some afternoon shade, since this reduces stress on plants. Salvia splendens grows best in fine-textured, warm soil.

Blue Salvia

• Blue salvia comes in different varieties and blooms with bright blue-violet flower spikes. Popular varieties of blue salvia include the blue hill salvia, which blooms from June to October and grows to a mature height of about 15 inches; salvia officinalis, which blooms for only a few weeks in spring; and salvia Caradonna, which blooms with blue-violet flowers from June to October. Salvia Caradonna is among the taller blue salvias, with a mature height of over 2 feet and a 12- to 18-inch spread. The foliage of blue salvias ranges from light green to gray-green and sometimes a dark green-black. Blue salvia grows best in areas of full sun and in moist, well-drained soil. A number of blue salvia varieties are native to Mexico, hence are hardy and drought tolerant plants.

Salvia Greggii

• Salvia greggii is also referred to as the red chihuahuan sage and is a native of the Chihuahuan Desert. The plant has a round, irregular shape and grows as an evergreen plant in the Arizona desert. Salvia greggii is, however, an annual in other areas, growing to a mature height of 3 feet with an equal spread. The plant has simple, elliptical, 1-inch-long foliage. Its 1-inch-long trumpet-shaped flowers are usually red in color but come in a range of other colors as well, from white to pink. Salvia greggii grows best in areas of full sun and tends to get leggy with less flower production if grown in shade. The plant is low maintenance and drought tolerant.