View full sizeSalvia guaraniticaI was sitting at my desk today reciting the name
Salvia guaranitica
over and over to try and fix it in my mind. Finally, it dawned on me to check the pronunciation in the dictionary and came up with gwar-an-IT-ih-kah. I could not for the life of me figure out where the "IT" part came in. I decided to take a break and find a photo to post. I cut and pasted the name into our electronic library and, hmmm, nothing came up. I knew there was a photo in there somewhere. So, I looked it up online again, and poor, dumb me: I'd left the middle "i" out. No wonder. Don't be quizzing me, though. I still can't say it.
I can grow it, though. Pretty successfully. I tend to move plants willy-nilly, not really thinking about where they'll look best or do best. Most of the time, it ends up OK. This was one of those times. At least in terms of looks. Exposure not so much. The place I choose is sunny with good drainage, a situation that should make
Salvia guaranitica
happy enough as long as it gets a little supplemental water, which it does. The problem is I ignored the increasingly thick branches of the Japanese maple nearby, the crape myrtle (
Lagerstroemia
'Arapaho') right overhead, the
pushing over from the right side and the
trying to smother it.
Even so, my salvia, which has an inordinate amount of common names (giant blue sage, anise sage, blue anise sage, hummingbird sage, Brazilian sage), fought it's way into the sun. The plant is definitely not as bushy as it would be in more sun. The three or four stems it puts up are tall, about 6 feet, and floppy, but held up by those other plants I mentioned. But the flowers are such an intensely true blue, darker than the sky even on a perfect summer day, that it has become the focal point of the bed. The bees, hover flies and hummingbirds can't get enough of those blue flowers. My final argument in favor of
S. guaranitica
is its hardiness; though labeled Zone 8, last two tough winters have not slowed it down one bit.
My next favorite salvia is
S. patens
, which is smaller and puts out flowers a little lighter than
S. guaranitica
. However, it's never made it through a winter for me, so I don't bother anymore.
Two varieties of
S. guaranitica
worth finding space for are
with paler blue blooms; and
with incredible cobalt blue flowers and black stems and calyxes (the cup holding the petals).
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