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  • 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.
    • apiana   CAG02005

      (White sage)
      Salvia apiana
      CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

      A handsome sage demanding a hot, dry, exposed position where it will form a long lived, low woody shrub, clothed in intense silvery white lance shaped leaves. In spring thousands of small white flowers in dense tapering heads tower over the foliage on sturdy stems up to 2m high. The entire plant is highly aromatic, some might say pungent, smelling to me not unlike burnt rubber but considered lovely by many, especially bees who find the flowers irresistible.

      Easily among the best silver foliaged plants of all time, although it really is more white than silver.
      Try an un-irrigated super silver garden with others such as Centaurea cineraria, Epilobium canum subsp. canum and Salvia dorrii.
      Superb on road verges or against rammed earth walls where it looks right at home.

      Water until established and then at your own risk, an occasional summer watering is beneficial. Otherwise tolerant of any well drained soil.

      Best on the west coast. Not suitable for areas with high summer humidity (coastal Sydney northwards) but should fair well in the less humid interior.

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