Spring Mavens

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.

Hardiness

Zones 7–9

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade

Height

2–4 ft.

Spread

3–4 ft.

Bloom

Red

Plant type

Shrub

Traditional use

digestive health, mental & emotional well-being, pain relief

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.

Hardiness

Zones 6–9

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade

Height

4–5 ft.

Spread

3–4 ft.

Bloom

Blue

Plant type

Perennial