Couldn’t Help Myself

I grow Salvia in the garden for their color and for the bees.  The ones in the garden are compact with small leaves and either blue or pink in color.  Their colors make up for lack of scent, flower scent.  I can smell them only when I brush against them, then the spicy, sage (S. officinalis) like scent, emanates upward.  Another good trait is that they are not invasive like bee balm which creeps everywhere.  They stay where I put them, upright in full sun but a little wobbly in the shade.  I wasn’t thinking of adding anymore in the garden until mental lightening struck.

I first saw a photo of Salvia ‘black and blue’ (S. guaranitica) in the “pbmGarden blog.” I became obsessed with the color combination, black and deep blues.  I hate the term “must have” when I see one in advertising and always object to it but the “must have” wouldn’t leave my head regarding the Salvia ‘black and blue’.

I spent a couple of weeks with my eyes darting from vendor to vendor at the farmer’s market.  If I couldn’t find it there, I would look on line.  Luck was on my side.  I found two vendors that carried it so I bought one from each of them.  Why?  They look different; one with darker green leaves and bushier, the other with lighter green leaves already producing flowers.  One vendor claimed it was a perennial, the other claimed it’s an annual.  I will know next year whether they are perennial or annual for USDA zone 5.

The flower combination is really lovely and the vibrant blue changes according to the light.   In sunlight, it is a beautiful deep blue with a hint of purple under artificial light.  It looks great next to the Pineapple sage (S. elegans).  What I need now are plants in the same family with white flowers so I can have a row of red, white and blue.  After all, July fourth is imminent.