Salvia Costa Rica Blue

Salvia Costa Rica Blue

This amazing salvia flowers for almost the whole year, except for mid-summer, so it starts its long period of bloom at the end of late summer and continues till December, when it has its rest. It is a more manageable size than most of the other large shrubby salvias, but is still tall (ht 2-2.5m). It is possibly related to Salvia guaranitica, but it is not invasive like that plant! It has big, rich blue flowers with dark calyces, which make them look very striking. The colour of the flowers really goes with almost anything in the garden. I like it with rich cerise and bright pink flowers, including other salvias and camellias, and it is effective with silver, purple or golden/lime foliage. It also looks stunning with hot colours, such as orange, red and yellow flowers, or autumn leaves. It tends to sprawl a bit and probably needs to be staked, but can be chopped back at any time of the year and will still go on producing flowers. Regular removal of one woody stem will enable it to almost continually flower, apart from its rest from December to February, which is the best time to prune it hard. It is sensitive to hard frosts but will usually recover in spring. It is best protected from hot sun and will flower reasonably well with morning sun and afternoon shade.

Postscript: Sadly, I ended up removing this plant from my garden as it just got too big and needed too much pruning. I enjoy seeing it in large gardens where it has the space it needs.