Salvias

Salvias There are of course scores of Salvias. One of the big mistakes made by gardeners is not being picky enough when it comes to selecting a variety of any given flower. For the ill-informed, one Salvia is as good as another. Not so. There are Salvias that flower for 2 months and Salvias that flower for 5 months; so you get over twice as many bangs for your bucks. Some also have the bonus of being popular with bees, which always adds to their charm.

All things considered you can go wrong selecting Salvia x sylvester 'Mainacht'.  It blooms from May to September! 'Mainacht' means May night and was first bred just after WWII. It is probably the longest flowering Salvia available, and bees love it.

It tends to flop over a bit by mid-summer, but this is a minor problem: just cut out the stems that have flopped a bit and Mainacht will send up new growth from the centre, and continue flowering its socks off.

It has a height and spread of 75cm x 50cm.  Salvia is notoriously easy to grow as it actually likes poor soil provided it has decent drainage. They are also easy to propagate: click HERE for info. It is available from Beth Chatto Gardens. Price £4.60 for a 1L pot plant.