• Image of Salvia guaranitica 'Argentina Skies'|Juniper Level Botanic Gdn, NC|JLBG

    Photo by JLBG taken at Juniper Level Botanic Gdn, NC

  • Image of Salvia guaranitica 'Argentina Skies'|Juniper Level Botanic Gdn, NC|JLBG

    Photo by JLBG taken at Juniper Level Botanic Gdn, NC

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Salvia guaranitica 'Argentina Skies'

Argentina Skies Anise Sage

This plant is not currently for sale. This is an archive page preserved for informational use.

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Item #: 809

Zones: 6a to 10b

Dormancy: Winter

Height: 60" tall

Culture: Sun to Part Sun

Origin: Argentina

Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)


Salvia guaranitica 'Argentina Skies' is a Charles Cresson selection of Salvia guaranitica that is dramatically different from the normal species. The tall plant is topped from June (NC) until fall with hundreds of tubular sky-blue flowers (RHS 97A)...not the dark blue that is more typical. This vigorous selection is also somewhat stoloniferous although it doesn't run far. Salvia 'Argentina Skies' is an easy-to-grow addition to the cooler colored sections of the perennial border...a hummingbird favorite.

Maintenance:

Salvia guarantica needs to be cut to the ground after frost ends its six month floral display and the stems are dead. This is about the only maintenance it needs. Salvia guaranitca can also be cut to the ground in late summer if it has gotten shabby. It will soon regrow, resume blooming, and look fresh up to fall. This is usually only "necessary" in areas with a long growing season. The plant doesn't mind looking shabby, but the tidy gardener might prefer the refreshed plant.

Selections of Salvia guarantica vary from clump forming to spreading. The spreading forms are not recommended for small gardens but are superb for large ones, especially where large masses of weed-excluding masses are desired. The clump forming ones are not necessarily small plants but they stay put and die away to the same crown each winter.

Growing Conditions:

Adaptability is the nature of this salvia, Salvia guaranitica. It thrives in all day full sun to bright shade. It grows well in wet soils to average moisture soils and tolerates fairly dry soils. Though excessively dry soils will not produce a worthwhile display.

Garden Value:

True blue flowers are produced from spring to frost and they are highly favored by hummingbirds. These two features are enough reason to grow it. Hummingbirds will fight over this plant. It might even warrant the name of Hummingbird Sage. Yes, we know what you have been told about hummingbirds and the color red.

Salvia guaranitica is generally avoided by deer and rabbits as are most members of the mint family. The genus Salvia is one of 236 genera in the Lamiaceae, the mint family.

Nomenclature:

Salvia guaranitica is sometimes called Salvia coerulea.