Salvia greggii Mirage® Soft pink

Salvia greggii Mirage® Soft Pink 'Balmirsopin' is a compact shrubby sage that becomes covered, from May until the first frosts, in a haze of soft pink flowers above fragrant foliage. Part of the Mirage® series, it is distinguished by a stocky, well-branched habit and good tolerance to summer drought. It fits into dry gardens or sunny borders and grows very well in pots.

This sage belongs to the Lamiaceae family, the mint family. In the wild, the botanical species Salvia greggii is a perennial undershrub found in a narrow band from southwest Texas to the state of San Luis Potosí in northern Mexico. It grows on rocky slopes, arid embankments and xeric scrub vegetation, typically between 1,500 and 2,700 metres in altitude.

Mirage® Soft Pink is a selection introduced by breeder Troy Thorup at Ball Horticultural Company, and distributed by the brand Darwin Perennials before 2016. It belongs to the Mirage® series, which includes very compact, densely branched Salvia greggii with particularly abundant and prolonged flowering, available in several colours (Burgundy, Cherry Red, Pink, Violet, White, etc.). It is a bushy undershrub with fairly rapid growth: in two to three years, it reaches 30 to 40 cm in all directions.
The foliage is semi-evergreen in mild climates, and becomes deciduous in regions with cold winters. The bright green leaves are small, ovate to oblong, 1 to 2 cm long. They release an aromatic scent, typical of sages, when crushed. 
The flowering is the greatest asset of this cultivar. From May-June until the first frosts, the plant produces a multitude of small tubular, two-lipped flowers along flowering stems that emerge slightly above the foliage. Each corolla measures 1.5 to 2 cm, with a wide lower lip and a narrower upper lip. The colour is a very soft pastel pink shaded with a deeper pink towards the outside, with a lavender sheen. These flowers are loved by bees, bumblebees and butterflies; the variety is included in the "Plants for Pollinators" list of the Royal Horticultural Society.
This variety is hardy down to -10/-12 °C in well-drained soil, sometimes a bit more in dry climates, but it suffers in heavy, waterlogged soils in winter.

Plant Mirage® Soft Pink sage at the front of a flower bed, in a wide border, on a dry embankment or in a scree garden. It also grows very well in a large pot or container, with a well-draining substrate and regular watering in summer. By the sea, plant it sheltered from prevailing winds laden with sea spray. Pair it, for example, with the white spikes of Agastache rugosa ‘Alabaster’, Chinese fountain grass Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’, the pink cascades of Origanum rotundifolium ‘Kent Beauty’ or the blue flowering of Nepeta faassenii Nova® 'Blue'.