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BLUE FLOWERED

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  • Penstemon

    (Beardtongue)
    Plantaginaceae

    A North American genus consisting of mostly drought and heat tolerant clumping perennials or sub-shrubs with tubular flowers. There are many spectacular species and cultivars in a wide range of colours from white through pink, red, purple and a few yellows but most notably blues of a luminosity rarely found in other genera.

    Wild species tend to be more heat and drought tolerant than English hybrids developed for milder climates, though all demand ample sunlight and excellent drainage, preferably with poor soil.
  • Petromarula
  • Phacelia
  • Phalocallis
  • Phlox
  • Puya
  • Salvia

    (Sage)
    Lamiaceae

    A genus whose popularity has risen exponentially in recent times. Offering a diverse range of form and colour there is a Salvia for nearly every garden situation with more and more being discovered and described all the time. The count now stands somewhere in excess of 1000, including subspecies, according to The Plant List. They are found on every continent except Antarctica.

    From a gardeners perspective they can not all be treated the same, they come from many different climates after all, but as a rule of thumb can be grouped into winter rainfall and summer rainfall species and with few exceptions they all prefer well drained soil.

    Soft leaved species from Central and South America are usually autumn and winter flowering. Coming from summer rainfall areas they typically need protection from dry heat and the accompanying high light intensity and they vary in their tolerance of winter damp. As with most plants the larger the leaves the more water they require, this also dictates how fast they grow with many growing several metres in a single season.

    Species from south western North America, South Africa, the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands are all winter growers and are tolerant or demanding of dry heat and summer drought. Slower growing but usually longer lived these all tend to have small, densely haired, silver or grey leaves or a combination of these traits which help them conserve moisture. Most of these require no additional water in Perth and are well adapted to our climate. They tend tend to flower from spring into summer.


    Prune back to where vigorous new basal growth is seen, never to dead wood, they appear to store little food in their stems and without leaves stand a chance of starving to death or at least struggle to regenerate. The exception is those few that are tuberous or clump forming, these can be cut to ground level once the stems start dying back in late autumn.
    • ‘African Skies’   CAG02343
      CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

      Rigid, branched spikes of well spaced, soft blue, two lipped, 1cm, tubular flowers for most of the year from a small, stiff, open shrub with 2cm, finely toothed, bright green, sandpapery, broadly lance shaped leaves.

      Like its South African parents S. scabra and S. chamelaeagnea it has no need of summer irrigation, but won't complain about it either, and is at its best in sandy soils though anything moderately well drained will be okay too.

      Prune regularly for best results and denser form.

    • azurea   CAG00571

      (Pitcher sage)
      Salvia azurea
      CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

      A sage from south eastern United States, most valued for its delicately showy spikes of azure flowers produced in the dog days of summer when others are gasping. The long, wandy, purplish stems, sparsely clothed in roughly textured, sage green, linear leaves, arise from a deeply rooted central stock in early spring and lengthen until flowering, then die off as they are being replaced with next seasons growth.

      Beautiful, graceful and dependable, easily grown in any reasonably well drained soil where available summer moisture will dictate height and laxity.

      Scatter through any garden area, perhaps with grasses and other summer flowering prairie perennials, for long lasting summer romance. More tasteful and satisfying than a trashy novel.

    • cacaliifolia   CAG00575
      Salvia cacaliifolia
      CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

      Sprawling stems bear unusual, almost triangular, cordate and broadly toothed, rubbery green leaves and branched spikes of small, pitcher shaped, electric blue flowers with protruding stamens throughout the warmer months. Never showy but greatly intriguing and in time makes an attractive groundcover. I've seen it used spilling over limestone retaining walls beneath high canopied trees, exposing its form and colour to great effect.

      From high altitude in mountains southerly to the Gulf of Mexico, cold tolerant and growing merrily through winter while more warmth requiring species stall. For any well drained sheltered site. Little resistance to dryness but otherwise easy and improving with age.

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