Salvia

This dandy Salvia came to us from the garden of Dan Post of whom we hold in the highest possible esteem. He has trialed this under intense deer pressure and it gets a thumbs up in all the critical categories. Easy, hardy, deer-proof and lovely. Bushy big leaves to 2' and tall branched flowering stems to 40" with blue violet flowers splotched in white, touched in yellow.

Pretty awesome new hybrid that came up at Suncrest Nurseries in CA thanks to some inspired work by the bees. This outshines its parents with gray-blue leaves and branched erect stems to 3' holding lots of lavender-blue flowers for many weeks. This can take drier conditions and the vermin deer don't like it.

Bold gray-green foliaged Chinese Salvia collected by plantswoman June Sinclair. Deciduous species and tough as nails. Multiple arms of flowering stems splay out from the leafy crown bearing many rich purple tubular pouchy flowers. This has been a trooper in our garden. We previously offered this as S. bulleyana but are refining our best guesses. Oh to have more time with a hand lens and the Flora of China.

The ticklingly named Prawn Sage (unexpected culinary pairing or wizened crustacean?) sports prawn red flowers typical of the genus but with the added flair of attractively felted leaves highlighted by a bright white underside. These were wild collected by Ben Kamm of Sacred Succulents as a part of his effort to source and distribute ethnobotanical plants of the Andes. To that end they like it dry and sunny, the hardiness is also a bit limiting but these are easily grown from cuttings to provide a self-perpetuating supply of annuals in colder climates

Tough plant from Russia and Romania with blue two-lipped flowers from June into September. This will get 2' to 3' tall and likes good drainage in sandy, gravelly situations where it can get occasional water although it is pretty drought tolerant. Being a Salvia, the Port Townsend gardening soul-crushing deer won't eat it.........yet. Once our Uptown PT herd exceeds 100, all bets are off. Thanks to Panayoti Kelaidis for sharing seed.

Our Asian collection from a high elevation meadow where this grew with Paris, Primula, Roscoea, Reineckea, Delphineum, Gentiana and Rhododendron - just typing this makes us want to go back there right now! This durable little Salvia has very nice flowers of yellow and purple well-displayed above the foliage.

Tough Sage from Asia Minor -Turkey, Georgia and Iran - where it grows on stony slopes up to 11000 feet so check the boxes on hardiness zones 5-10, good drainage, full sun and moderate water needs. While you have your pencil, check deer and rabbit resistant, white flowers, summer blooming and 30 inches tall. Now you are free to doodle. Seed shared with us by horticultural mega-icon Panayoti Kelaidis from his Denver garden.

Named for the Mexican State of Sinaloa, this compact and showy blue-flowered Salvia is like having a festive small mariachi band in your garden. Well-drained soil is a must as cold, heavy soil in winter will be the Day of the Dead. Just 8"-10" tall and a bit wider, purple calyces and purple-tinted leaves add allure.

Robust Salvia from a Hinkley collection at high elevation in Sichuan. This is a tough perennial which will increase in width with the large leaves acting as a weed suppressing shield. Rosy-purple flowers, at least as I remember them, are held nicely above the leaves in mid summer. Prefers light shade to a little sun.

Hummingbird Sage. A California native perennial Sage that can take sun or some dry shade as this will grow under California live oaks. California shade is notably brighter than our Washington shade. This will get 16"-28" tall with rose-pink flowers appearing out of prominent dark calyces and will creep rhizomatously to 4' or so across. Hummingbird banquet and deer proof.

Tender perennial from Brazil but easy to overwinter inside and worth every effort. This late bloomer has 6"-10" spikes of rusty red flowers jutting above dark green heavily textured foliage. Give those Asters something to idolize. Thanks to Beverley Merrifield for sharing unintentionally.