Salvia farinacea Big Blue

Salvia 'Big Blue' is a hybrid sage, actually a tender perennial plant that can be easily grown as an annual for its generous and beautiful flowering. This heat-resistant variety produces from summer until the first frost superb upright flower spikes, very dense, of an intense blue-violet, which rise majestically above a broad dark green foliage. With an upright but compact habit that is very tidy, this sage is wonderfully suited for flower pots, borders, and summer beds. It is also a very beautiful cut flower.

Salvia 'Big Blue' is a sterile horticultural hybrid, probably resulting from the spontaneous cross-breeding of Salvia longispicata, a large perennial shrub native to the mountainous regions of southwestern Mexico, and Salvia farinacea, another perennial species native to Texas and Mexico. Just like its presumed parents, this plant belongs to the Lamiaceae family. Its low hardiness and rapid growth make it an excellent annual in most climates. The 'Big Blue' cultivar has an elegant habit, both upright and bushy, reaching about 50 cm (20in) in height when in bloom, with a diameter of 40 cm (16in). It forms bouquets of sturdy stems, covered at their base with broad ovate foliage, with serrated edges and visible veins, dark green in colour, quite different from that of the mealy sages. Blooming starts timidly in July, takes off in August-September, and reaches its peak in October-November. Above the foliage clump, upright and dense spikes appear, 30 cm (12in) long, adorned with small flowers of a deep blue-violet hue. As the plant does not produce viable seeds, it dedicates all its energy to tirelessly blooming, until the cold weather knocks it down.

The 'Big Blue' hybrid sage,  very tall and very blue, will be perfect everywhere. First and foremost in flower beds, for example paired with white or pink roses, marigolds, and a sowing of common borage. It will also enhance the autumn colours of deciduous spindle trees, Persian ironwoods, oakleaf hydrangeas, accentuating their flamboyant shades. It can also be paired with grasses, gauras, and emerge from a bush of silver wormwoods. This plant also forms pretty borders along pathways, among silver carpet (Cerastium tomentosum) that will carpet its base in a soft harmony of muted tones. Its very neat habit allows it to fill beautiful flower pots, alongside annual rudbeckias, pink calibrachoas, or bacopas. Its lavender-like spikes hold up well in a vase.

With over 900 species of annuals, perennials, and soft-wooded shrubs, distributed throughout the globe, except in very cold regions and the tropical forest, the Salvia genus is the richest in the Lamiaceae family.