• Image of Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'|Juniper Level Botanic Gdn, NC|JLBG

    Photo by JLBG taken at Juniper Level Botanic Gdn, NC

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Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'

Garden Violence Anise Sage

2 Reviews
| 2 answered questions

Item #: 2016

Zones: 7a to 10b

Dormancy: Winter

Height: 36" tall

Culture: Sun to Part Sun

Origin: Brazil

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


$20.00
$20.00
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Emerging from dormancy in early spring, the 3' tall clumps of Salvia 'Black and Blue' are clothed in fuzzy green, spade-shaped leaves. From early June (NC) through October, the slowly spreading patches are topped with 1' spikes of long, narrow, snapdragon-like, luscious, deep blue flowers...a hummingbird favorite. Salvia 'Black and Blue' differs from other anise sage cultivars in that the calyx (the little cup that holds the open flower) is black instead of the usual green. In rich soil, a 5-year-old clump of Salvia 'Black and Blue' can spread to 6' wide.

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.