Salvias are the sages, a huge and generous genus of aromatic, long-flowering plants that spans hardy perennials, tender shrubs, and everything in between. Between them they cover an extraordinary range of color, from true blues and purples to scarlet, pink, and white, on plants that flower for months rather than weeks. The aromatic foliage, which deer and other browsers tend to leave alone, is a bonus on top of the bloom.

In the landscape salvias are the engine room of the long-season border. They carry color from late spring deep into fall, hold up to heat and drought once established, and mix as easily into a naturalistic planting as a formal one. Tall kinds give spires and structure; low ones edge a path or fill a container; and nearly all of them repay a light cut-back with a fresh flush of flower.

We grow salvias for their unmatched value to pollinators and their sheer, forgiving generosity. Tubular salvia flowers are built for bees, butterflies, and above all hummingbirds, which work them from spring to frost, and the plants ask for little more than sun and drainage in return. Few groups give a garden so much life for so little trouble.

Give them full sun and sharp drainage, go easy on water and feed, and cut them back to keep the flowers coming. Weave them through our Herbaceous Perennials, lean on them in our Sun Lovers and Drought-Tolerant Plants collections, and find the natives among our Southeastern Natives.