Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' is the famous temperature-shifting bicolor of the littleleaf sages, and the trick is worth the fame. In the cool of spring the flowers may open pure white or pure red, but as summer heat builds they turn strikingly two-tone, white below with a bold red lip, so that a single plant can carry white, red, and red-and-white flowers all at once. The show runs from late spring until frost.
Salvia microphylla 'Lutea' is an uncommon yellow-flowered form of the littleleaf or baby sage, a small woody shrub of the mountains of Mexico and the borderlands. Where the species carries the usual salvia scarlet or orange-red, 'Lutea' opens soft, pale yellow flowers instead, a quiet and unusual color on a plant otherwise known for hot tones, and blooms over a long season from late spring into fall.
Salvia puberula, the downy sage, is a big, late-flowering Mexican sage grown for tall spikes of deep magenta-pink flowers that open when the year is nearly done. The blooms are large, nearly four inches long, gathered in showy clusters atop the spikes, and the color is rich and saturated, glowing at a season when little else is in flower. The spikes cut well for the vase.
Salvia uliginosa, the bog sage, is an airy, sky-blue perennial grown for clouds of clear, cool blue flowers held on tall, slender, branching stems from midsummer into fall. The species name uliginosa means of marshes, and the plant lives up to it, thriving in the moist ground most sages refuse, so the bog sage fills a niche few others in the genus can.
Salvia urticifolia, the nettleleaf sage, is an uncommon herbaceous perennial native to the Appalachians and the wider Southeast, grown for cool blue-to-violet flowers set off by a pair of white marks in the throat. The bloom comes in the freshness of mid to late spring, the flowers hovering above serrated, nettle-like leaves, and in a generous year a lighter second flush may follow in late summer.
Salvia 'Phyllis Fancy' is a vigorous, large hybrid sage with a good pedigree, found as a chance seedling at the University of California, Santa Cruz Arboretum and named for a longtime volunteer there. The parentage is thought to involve Salvia leucantha, the Mexican bush sage, and possibly Salvia chiapensis, though the cross has never been confirmed.
Very choice double flowered form of the Bloodroot. Colony forming woodland wildflower for rich moist, but well-drained soil in shade or semi-shade. Unusual rounded lobed foliage is attractive. Very early spring flowers are pure white and showy. Especially this rare double flowered form with abundant flowers like small water lilies which last longer than the single form as they are sterile. Zone 4-8.
Medium size deciduous tree with clusters of persistent golden 1/2 inch diameter fruits and good yellow fall color. The hardiest of the genus and good for well-drained soils either acid or limestone. (See DIR, WTX)
This attractive small-medium deciduous tree has compound leaves dark green leaves, and white spring flowers that are followed by clusters of marble-sized yellow fruits. The fruits are rich in saponin and can lather like soap in water. This rare tree with golden fall foliage is found in woodlands on calcareous soils at widely scattered sites in southern Georgia and Florida. It is rare in cultivation and almost unknown in the nursery trade.
Sapium japonicum is a medium size deciduous shrub or small tree. The oval leaves suggestive of a Magnolia are unlike the widely naturalized (and invasive!) Chinese Tallowtree (Sapium sebiferum) which was introduced by Thomas Jefferson. The Japanese tallowtree is little-known in the U.S. but is an attractive ornamental notable for attractive foliage and good orange-red fall color. It should be planted in well-drained but moist soil in a sunny location. Native to eastern Asia.
This plant is a botanical time machine. Sarcandra glabra belongs to the Chloranthaceae, a flowering-plant family with only four surviving genera worldwide and a fossil record reaching back into the Early Cretaceous, more than a hundred million years ago. Pollen and floral fossils of the Chloranthaceae are among the earliest evidence of flowering plants anywhere on Earth, and the family was already abundant when the dinosaurs were only in their middle age. Today Sarcandra is one of just four genera left from a lineage that once spread across what is now Portugal, Spain, and eastern North America, and most of that Cretaceous diversity is gone. The little plant in the garden is a quiet survivor of a family that mostly did not make it.
Sarcococca confusa, sweet box, is one of the great winter-fragrance shrubs, a compact evergreen of the boxwood family grown for a perfume out of all proportion to the flowers that carry it. In the depths of winter the small, tassel-like, creamy white flowers open along the stems, tucked among the leaves and easy to miss by eye, but their sweet, honeyed scent carries yards on a mild day and stops passersby in their tracks.
A spreading, half hardy evergreen shrub with fragrant flowers and narrow, glossy leaves. It grows well in shade and is related to Boxwood. Not susceptible to diseases and insects. Displays high drought tolerance once established. Native to western China.
Sarcococca orientalis is a fragrant, uncommon sweet box from China, a compact evergreen of the boxwood family grown, like its kin, for a winter perfume far larger than the flowers that carry it. In late winter small white flowers open along the stems, modest to the eye but richly and sweetly scented, filling a still, mild day with fragrance and giving the shade garden a lift when little else stirs.
Sarcococca ruscifolia, the fragrant sweet box, is an evergreen shrub of the boxwood family, native to China and East Asia, grown for a winter perfume that belies the tiny flowers that carry it. In late winter and early spring the small, creamy white flowers open along the glossy stems, easy to overlook by eye but powerfully sweet on the air, and unlike the black-fruited sweet boxes, this species follows the flowers with glowing red berries.
Evergreen shrub with milk-white flowers and dark red fruits. Prefers warmer climates and shade. Leaves are suggestive of Ruscus and are glossy. Related to Boxwood.
Upright wide spreading.evergreen shrub with distinctive willow-like narrow leaves. Unlike but related to Boxwood. Dark purple to black fruit. This species from the western Himalayas is very little known and seldom available from nurseries in the U.S. Perhaps a bit less cold hardy than some of the other Sarcococca species but a good plant for shady garden areas in the Deep South.
