Salvia Species, Southern Mexican Sage

I volunteered under Don Mahoney, growing Salvias with Jean Coria, for ten years at Strybing - now San Francisco Botanic Garden - where I ...Read Morefirst had contact with this wonderful species. Gardeners should know a few more things about it:

- it spreads somewhat irregularly, and more or less aggressively, by underground runners. When it gets among taller shrubs, it can send up stems 8 feet or more with that support.

- bloom seems to improve when it is left alone through a few seasons. It might flower in bursts two times a year, then take a year off. It can be cut nearly to the ground, but I wouldn't do that every year. Usually, I give it a 50% shave back, after whenever the bloom-burst slows, and then let it go for over a year before cutting it again.

- In our coastal mediterranean climate, it can survive without summer watering, once established, though of course it looks best with at least occasional irrigation.

Salvia disjuncta is a little-known sage, first distributed in 1993 by California's Strybing Arboretum, which collected it from the southe...Read Morern Mexican mountains in the late 1980s.

The mahogany-brown stems stretch to 6' tall and are covered in tiny white hairs. The stalks are adorned with fragrant, fuzzy heart-shaped leaves and topped, starting in late October, with intense
carmine-red tubular flowers.

In mild climates, flowering continues through the winter or until a hard freeze. plants have survived 6 degrees F unmulched. Mexico native and loved by the hummers.