Grace's Groves and Gardens: October 2011

Salvia Dancing Dolls

Just love those salvias! So does the butterflies! And although I try to grow as many native flowers as possible, salvias are just iresistable to me, the butterflies and the humingbirds, so salvias are slowly taken over my butterfly garden.

I think salvias are very underutilized in the landscape. With so many to choose from and with all their different colors and sizes everyone should be able to find one or two that would fit somewhere in the garden, but I will warn you, salvias could become addictive. Finding salvias takes a little bit of work, since they are not usually readily available at least in my area of North Central Florida. There are many sources on line, but I have not tried any of them. Salvia coccinea also called Texas sage or blood sage is relatively easy to find in small and or/native nurseries. You can also order from Jefferson’s center for historic plants ( http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/in-bloom/texas-sage) Also watch for local plant sales in community events, churches or Master Gardener events. And if you live in my area, I would be happy to share with you. One of the good things about salvias is that they are usually perennials and will readily reseed. Salvias are also very easy to root from cuttings so once you establish a few, the rest is history! Salvias are disease and pest free and although a hard freeze will kill most of them, they will come back.
Whether you call them salvias or sage, remember that all salvias are sages and all sages are salvias. Usually the name salvia refers to the ornamental plants and sage to the cooking type, but it is all the same. Salvias come from the Mediterranean areas of Europe, where for centuries were used as medicinal plants for an array of different ailments. Pliny the elder, a Roman historian and naturalist (23-79AD) gave this genus its name, “salvia” from the Latin salvare “to be saved” it was also referred to as “herba sacra” or sacred weed. Salvias belong to the family lamiaceae or mint family with over 800 hundred different cultivars.
Accoding to Wikipedia, “ The genus is distributed throughout the Old World and the Americas, with three distinct regions of diversity: Central and South America (approx. 500 species); Central Asia and Mediterranean (250 species); Eastern Asia (90 species)
All the pictures were taken in my garden, a few salvias, some others, but all loved by the butterflies and hummingbirds.