The engine room of the long-season border. Aromatic and forgiving, the salvias flower for months in true blue, scarlet, and violet, and hummingbirds work them from spring to frost.
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.
