BLOOMING TIMES
Salvias for Summer If you’re looking for easygoing, heat-tolerant plants with a long-flowering season, (and who isn’t?) you can do no better than salvias, writes Flo Whitaker
P
lants, like people, have differing personalities. Some, (think peonies and oriental poppies), behave like flamboyant superstars; making brief, show-stopping appearances before flouncing off-stage. However, to create an interesting garden, you also need a strong supporting cast. Perennial salvias belong in this category; less shouty, perhaps, but they are real workhorses and invaluable for keeping the performance going until late autumn. Salvias belong to a huge genus of plants called Lamiaceae; a group which also includes mint and nettle. Verbena and glandularia are closely related – they share a distinctive family trait of unusual, square-profile stems. Salvias revel in a sunny, sheltered spot in well-drained soil and are perfect for a mixed border. Taller varieties,
AND BEYOND such as ‘Amistad’ and perhaps, the most eye-popping colour ‘Hadspen’ can grow combination of all, but my absolute up to 1.5 metres high and favourite Salvia is ‘Nachtvlinder’ (40 may require light staking, but 60 cms). Everything about it is beautiful salvias are mostly self-supporting. – including its name, which translates Allow them to gently lean into their as ‘Night Moth’. Regal purple flowers neighbours; they will fill gaps as on dainty stems are borne above they ‘weave’ through a border, foliage that smells deliciously of helping to make a visually blackcurrants. It’s a gem of cohesive picture. a plant. As well as flowers, Many salvias are salvias also produce labelled ‘hardy’, ‘bracts’ (modified but, in truth, they leaves) that struggle in wintery continue to give wet soils. I garden structure and on heavy clay and interest when assume all salvias blooms fade. are non-hardy for These bracts me, no matter what are often boldlythe plant labels coloured and really promise. I mostly zing when set against grow them in pots; autumn dahlias and either plunged directly chrysanthemums. Salvia into the border during ‘Black and Blue’, with summer, or in a patio its astonishing pure blue Salvias prefer a sunny, pot display. This allows flowers, (very unusual them to be moved into sheltered spot in well- a frost-free greenhouse in the plant world) and jet-black bracts is, drained soil May 2022 | SUSSEX LIVING 85
May22 Blooming Times Salvia.indd 85
21/04/2022 14:14
