Re: Plants for **below** a Salvia clevelandii?

Another Salvia which combines well with S. clevelandii is Salvia muelleri, 
with a spreading, low mound of tiny green leaves and spikes of deep purple 
flowers, native to Mexico.  This might do the trick for your customer.  The 
native California S. sonomensis is another possibility.  Another native, S. 
leucophylla, has low, groundcover form called 'Point Sal Spreader'.  The 
flowers of these two species (this and S. clevelandii) are very similar 
(lavender-pink in the former, blue-violet in the latter) and combine to 
make a nice watercolor effect.  They might also hybridize (a common 
occurance) to produce intermediate forms.  Low native Artemesias might also 
bee a good companion - A. californica is a nice, filmy, celadon-green 
effect and is often growing naturally in the same areas as S. 
clevelandii.  I once saw a marvelous slope planting of the variegated 
Century Plant (Agave americana 'Aureo-Marginata') and S. clevelandii, with 
the prostrate for of A. californica draping down in between each of the 
other - striking!

Sean O.

At 09:40 PM 1/25/00 -0500, Ccopuntia@aol.com wrote:
>I was helping a customer today who has this problem: she has a hillside
>across from some picture windows in her house which is planted with several
>Salvia clevelandii that she says "show too many bottom branches" for her
>liking.  She loves the Salvia flowers and doesn't want to take it out, so she
>was looking for solutions to "hide" or screen those lower branches.  Ok
>Medit-folks, anyone have some clever suggestions for what to plant in front
>of these?  She does have a few requirements -- the plants must have showy
>flowers (can be any color), be fairly low maintenance, must take extreme
>summer heat (Contra Costa Co., CA) and must not die back or look ugly at any
>time......whew.  The area is on a drip, so the plants should require a
>similar water as the Salvia.  I look forward to any input and thank you very
>much in advance!
>
>C. Carter


Sean A. O'Hara                       sean.ohara@groupmail.com
h o r t u l u s   a p t u s          710 Jean Street
'a garden suited to its purpose'     Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
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