Re: Best(favorite) Salvia(s)

It is difficult to come up with just one species of
Salvia as a favorite long bloomer for a mediterranean
climate.  S. chiapensis as Sean mentions is also very
good as an almost everblooming container plant for sun
or bright shade.  S. uliginosa is somewhat invasive,
and also deciduous, but indispensible for a tall
growing back of the border summer/fall true blue
color.  S. 'Indigo Spires' is also almost
everblooming, but needs regular pinching and shaping
to keep it tidy, or other lower facing
shrubs/perennials to help support it.  It also blooms
in fairly deep shade.  S. buchannii is a favorite of
mine for the incredible magenta blooms and glossy
foliage, but it is very fragile and stems will seem to
break just looking at it.  Perhaps S. 'Van Houtii' is
the one I could say I can't do without.  It has such
prolific and beautiful wine red flowers, but is also
tender and very attractive to snails and slugs.  It is
simply loaded with blooms nearly year round if planted
in a warm, wind protected spot.  S. cacaliaefolia is
more of a semi-trailing scandent shrub/vine, but again
is a good true blue which will bloom well in deep
shade, and blooms almost 10 months a year in my
garden.  I have this growing up through a Justicia
carnea 'Huntington Form' and Leucospermum cuneiforme,
and enjoy the blue, pink and pale yellow flowers in
the dappled shade of a towering Schefflera pueckleri,
with a small meadow of our native Berkeley Sedge/Carex
tumilicola as a foreground.  Some adjacent lavender
blooming and purple foliaged Ageratum corymbosa and
Darmera peltata are also blooming now, with the later
arising bold Indian Rhubarb foliage just pushing up
after the main bloom is winding down.  In our mild
conditions, I seldom see any fall color on this plant,
which colors up nicely further north.

Not a Salvia, but similar in character is Plectranthus
zuluensis, which has pale lavender blooms all year
long, scented foliage, and can be pinched to stay in
the 2 1/2 to 4 foot height range in shade, or grows
much more compactly if grown hard in full sun and with
little water. 

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