Salvia greggii 'Cherry Queen'

'Cherry Queen' is a North Carolina-bred salvia from one of the most important salvia hybridizers America has produced. The cross is a deliberate one, between Salvia greggii, the autumn sage of the Texas and Mexican borderlands, prized for drought tolerance and a six-month bloom, and Salvia blepharophylla, a Mexican species whose name, eyelash-leaved sage, comes from the tiny fringe of hairs at the edge of each leaf (Greek blepharon, eyelash, and phylla, leaves). Blepharophylla carries the most saturated, signal-bright red flower in the whole genus, but the plant spreads by stolons in ways most gardeners do not want and resents cold winters, while greggii brings the bones and the durability. The breeder who put the two together was Dr. Richard "Rich" Dufresne of Candor, North Carolina, an organic chemist who became, more or less by accident, the leading American breeder of woody salvias for the eastern climate. Dufresne died in December 2018, leaving a body of work that includes 'Cherry Chief', 'Maraschino', and this selection, which Plant Delights Nursery called the most brilliant red they had ever seen on any hardy salvia.

The flower is the show: tubular, two-lipped, about an inch long, in a clean saturated cherry-red, not the deeper crimson of a bottlebrush nor the brick of Salvia greggii 'Furman's Red', but a sharp, luminous red that reads from across a garden. Bloom begins early, sometimes on the first warm days of April in zone 8, and continues in waves through summer and into fall, with a heavy push from September into November once the autumn sage genetics take over from the blepharophylla spring and summer pattern. In humid Southeastern conditions the plants often bloom without pause from April through hard frost. Hummingbirds find the flowers within hours of the first opening, and bees, butterflies, and beneficial wasps work them heavily all season.

The plant is compact and well-mannered, two to three feet tall and about as wide, with a slightly more spreading, semi-prostrate habit than the usual upright autumn sage. The leaves are narrower than most greggii selections, dark green and glossy, a blepharophylla trait, and carry the small pointed tip that Dufresne named as a diagnostic feature for telling true 'Cherry Queen' from other red-flowered forms in the trade. The foliage is aromatic when crushed, with the soft minty, resinous scent of the woody salvias, lighter than culinary sage. Drought tolerant once established, heat tolerant, and, unusually for a Texas-Mexico salvia, genuinely humidity tolerant, a real advantage in the Southeast where many western sages struggle. Deer and rabbits leave the plant alone.

One note on care: like all the woody salvias of the greggii, microphylla, and jamensis group, 'Cherry Queen' is not self-cleaning, and spent flower stalks stay on the plant until removed. The standard approach is a hard cut, by half to two-thirds, in late winter, less precision pruning than a clean reset, which clears the dead tops and triggers the spring flush. Left untouched, the plant still blooms and grows, but the frame turns ragged.

This is a plant for the hummingbird gardener who wants the brightest red salvia available, the Southeastern gardener trying to grow xeric Texas-Mexico sages in real Carolina humidity, the collector building a serious Salvia collection, and anyone who would like to grow a piece of Rich Dufresne's quiet legacy at home.