Salvia
Plants I Love (AKA The Plants that Don't Die on Me)
Salvia
I never used to like salvia. Typically all you’d see in Florida gardens was the common red variety and something about it looked very plain and sterile. It just never really interested me. That was before I started looking into butterfly gardening. While not the butterfly magnet butterfly bush and lantana are, they do attract the insects. The bigger draw for me is the variety of colors available and the wildness they seemed to possess. My local nursery always has new varieties and I seem to be a sucker for them. My favorite is salvia guaranitica ‘Black & Blue’, pictured to the left. It has big, electric blue flowers with dark black stems. It died back in the winter, but reseeded itself, which I was thrilled about. I’m also growing pink hummingbird salvia and victoria blue salvia. I’ve managed to collect seed from the pink salvia and currently have a bunch of seedlings and some rooted cuttings, which I’m excited about. The lady at the nursery promised that the pink salvia would bring on the hummingbirds. I haven’t seen one yet, although my Monster did report seeing one over the weekend in another part of the yard. Maybe they are still looking for it? Hummingbirds: if you happen to be Internet savvy and see this, they are in the front yard!
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