July’s plant of the month is the salvia, and there can be few plant families which offer more in sheer variety, from brilliantly colourful bedding plants for a quick splash of colour, to exotic-looking beauties and evergreen shrubs with fragrant leaves that make a useful flavouring for the kitchen.
Sample just a few from the fine selection we have in our garden centre here in %locations% and you’ll see just what this wonderful group of plants is capable of.
If you love your fruit and veg, start with perhaps the easiest salvia of all: Salvia officinalis, or culinary sage. It’s a handsome evergreen shrub, with velvety leaves: ‘Purpurascens’ has smokey purple foliage while ‘Icterina’ is variegated gold and green.
Equally easy-going are the herbaceous sages: big, robust perennials with spires of deep blue-purple flowers which last most of the summer. Salvia nemorosa is a tried-and-tested favourite, with pink varieties like ‘Amethyst’ and dark-stemmed ‘Caradonna’ with deep violet flowers. Bees absolutely love them, so they’re perfect for a wildlife garden too.
And for a tropical look, go for hot-coloured Mexican sages. These beauties are only frost hardy in milder areas. Look out for scarlet pineapple sage, the gorgeous red-and-white ‘Hot Lips’, and cerise pink blackcurrant sage. All are deliciously scented.
