The season of gardening shows has arrived and few plants are used as widely at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show as salvias. And it’s not hard to see why, as there are hundreds of these beauties from which to choose to add colour, structure, and interest to any size of garden.

Make Your Selection

Salvias bloom in a range of colours with Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ having bright red and white flowers that look like they are puckering up for a kiss, whilst ‘Day Glow’ lives up to its name with luminous rose-pink blooms. Salvia nemorosa ‘Sensation White’ is perfect for bringing a fresh look and ‘Royal Bumble’ has dark, purple stems which contrast with blood-red blooms.

If you can only find room for one, make sure it is Salvia ‘Caradonna’, with its 50cm (20”) tall spires of rich, purple blooms, which flower all summer long. It looks great adding height and colour to a border or in a mixed planting container, the neat foliage complements swaying grasses well.

Winter Survival

As salvias originate from hot, arid countries, many can be tender and will be killed off by a Scottish winter, so either treat them as annuals, or sick to hardier varieties. Salvia nemorosa or Salvia sylvestris are clump-forming with stiff purple or blue spikes of flowers that last for months and are reliably perennial.

Salvia ‘Amistad’ with its purple, almost black buds, grows to around 1.2m (4′) in height and will reliably flower right into November. It is often sold as a cold-resistant variety but our editor notes that although it is one of her favourite salvias, she has only been able to bring this through a Scottish winter on a few occasions, the wet cold kills them off, although they are easy to take cuttings from.

Scent of Salvias

You can grow salvias not just for colour, but for scent too. Salvia elegans (pineapple sage) releases a wonderful Pina Colada scent, but it does need to be protected over winter. Another delightfully fragranced option is the tall Salvia dorisiana which is fruit-scented, but again it is half-hardy, so not one which will reliably come back next year.

Keeping Them Happy

These plants are sun worshippers so be sure to place them in the sunniest spot you can find, they will still perform in less sunny locations, but perhaps with a little less vigour. They thrive in well-drained soil, so if you have sandy or stony borders, success is guaranteed. If your soil is heavy, moist, and full of clay, grow them in pots instead but remember that plants growing in pots are reliant on you for watering and feeding.

If your salvias are labelled as half-hardy, we will most likely not have the ideal conditions to see them through until next year, but if you have well-drained soil, in a sheltered spot, add a thick, protective layer of mulch over the winter and you may just be lucky. If your soil gets soggy in the cold damp months, try moving half-hardy salvias into a shed or garage between November and March.

Herby Relative

The culinary salvia, more often known as sage, is quite hardy, and its grey-green foliage, often speckled with cream and purple, is attractive, as is the short spike of mauve blooms if you let it flower.

Time for a Haircut

Perennial salvias respond well to a ‘Chelsea Chop’ which quite simply is a pruning technique that you can use on some herbaceous perennials to delay or extend the flowering period. This also creates sturdier plants that need less staking.

The reason it is called the Chelsea Chop is that the pruning is normally carried out around the end of May which coincides with the staging of the Chelsea Flower Show. Given that flowering times in Scotland are generally two or three weeks later than those further south, moving into June would be a more appropriate time to carry out a Chelsea Chop here.

Flowering from June right through to November, depending on the variety, salvias are a great choice for extending the season of colour in your garden.