Plant of the month - Salvias

Salvias are brilliant! They have an exceptionally long flowering period and the bees love them.

There is a huge range of varieties from annuals to hardy shrubs and semi-hardy perennials. Over the years, as new varieties have been developed, the range of colours has increased. Lots of you will know and love Hot Lips and, recently, more bi-coloured varieties have become available.

The hardy shrubs stay outside in pots or flowerbeds all year round. Salvias should not be pruned until about April when the new growth starts to appear. One of the major benefits is that salvias flower from late spring until the autumn.

The perennials can vary from a small bush with spikes of flower to some varieties that grow to about one metre tall. These tend to die right back in the winter but come back in the spring. They may need to be put in a greenhouse or be well mulched if we have a cold winter.

A lot of salvias are easy to propagate from cuttings and from seed. Most salvias do not send out runners but a couple of the hardy shrubs do, especially one of the purple varieties and one of the dark blue ones. Salvias grow in most soils and most parts of the garden.