Salvia is the largest genus in the mint family, consisting of more than 900 species of plants, from culinary and medicinal herbs, to stunning garden flowers. The word Salvia comes from the Latin ‘salvare’, meaning to heal or save. The leaves of Salvia’s are often aromatic, and features common to all Salvias include square stems, opposite leaves, and two-lipped flowers of unequal length. Salvias thrive in both hot and temperate zones, and grow from sea level to 11,000 feet. Although typically perennials in warmer climates, gardeners in colder planting zones can still enjoy salvias as annuals.
Salvia flowers have a two-lipped petal structure
Salvia ‘Purple Majesty’ is performing very well in our coastal climate, but also tolerates our occasionally scorching hot summer days.
Salvia 'Purple Majesty'
Salvia ‘Purple Majesty’ is a cross between Salvia guarantica (anise scented sage) and Salvia gesneraeflora (mountain sage). This Salvia has deep violet tubular flowers borne on a multitrunked, open shrubby plant, that in our garden has grown to almost 5 feet tall. Despite an absolute deluge of rain in October, and a few mornings recently hovering just above freezing, our Salvia ‘Purple Majesty’ plants are still in full bloom.
Salvia 'Purple Majesty'
However, this Salvia variety has also been an exercise in patience for us. We acquired these particular plants from an organic plant sale in the spring of 2008. Despite our best efforts, the first season it seemed everything was determined to eradicate this sage from the garden. Despite planting in gopher baskets, the gophers kept mounding dirt just outside the baskets almost as if they were taunting our young plants. The deer would ignore them for weeks on end, and then just as they would start to set flower buds, they’d behead the Salvia, and rob us of the chance to see any blooms. Some temporary wire cages around the plants did prevent the deer from mowing the plants all the way to the ground, but they were repeatedly, and mercilessly pruned at least a half dozen times last year. Despite high hopes, we didn’t see a single flower in 2008.
Salvia 'Purple Majesty' has beautiful arrow shaped leaves
This spring we largely ignored the plants, we didn’t even bother to prune them as the deer had already done that for us. We knew these plants would benefit from being located to a more suitable, more protected area in the garden away from gnawing gophers and browsing deer, but other priorities in the gardens stole our attention from these plants for a while. By mid-late summer though we started to notice a few stunning purple colored blooms.
Bees on Salvia 'Purple Majesty'
For whatever reason, this year the deer have decided to leave these plants alone. Perhaps now the plants are more mature, they simply don’t find them as appetizing. As such, Salvia ‘Purple Majesty’ has now become the center of attention in our fall garden, not just for us, but also has grabbed the attention of our Anna’s hummingbirds and the hoards of honeybees now feverishly zipping from flower to flower. Certainly a new favorite here at Curbstone Valley, and very highly recommended for any garden in need of a rich splash of color.
