Planting Fall Perennials – Salvia Flowers in Rose and Blue

Last time I shared my new plants rescued from the garden center for $1 each.  I’m a soft touch and for a buck, well, it’s really hard to say no.  You can read that post here:  Planting Fall Perennials – Taking Advantage of Bargain Plants

We started with this collection of plants:

There are a salvia, a perennial Geranium masquerading as a delphinium, mystery plant, lavender, lambs ears, another salvia, thrift and sedum.  Last post showed the lavender, lambs ears, thrift and sedum in their new garden homes.   (That sedum better do something besides carry dusty grayed out pink flowers.)

Perennial salvia is a nice plant for color according to the flower catalogs.  My last garden had a perennial sage plant that was nondescript.  The flowers were pretty but small and the plant was floppy so the leaves hid the flowers.  I don’t recall that it was marked as a special variety and it may have been meant for herb use.  I ripped it out finally because it had taken over quite a swath of sunny spot.

I’ve been wanting to try the named varieties, especially the deep blue shades.

The two salvia are different colors. One is a medium rosy purple that I don’t recall seeing before called Caradonna. The other is May Night which I’ve been tempted to get several times. Flower catalogs show May Night with deep, dark blue spires of flowers, eye catching and beautiful. Plus these salvia are sage, meaning the foliage smells nice and deer don’t graze on them.

Here is a link to Caradonna sage at the Parks Seeds website.  That color is superb!

Caradonna Sage from the Parks Seeds Website

Parks doesn’t show May Night this fall, so here’s a link to the White Flower Farms site. Isn’t that blue amazing?

May Night Salvia from White Flower Farms Website

Needless to say, my salvis plants do not look like this! Not this fall any how. Now next year – we’ll have to see. Here they are up close.

Here is the May Night plant. It’s in great condition, nice and healthy with a good root ball.

And here’s the Caradonna salvia. It’s also in good condition.

I’m a little skeptical of the color, but it’s worth a try. That rosy purple should look good near my phlox. The Caradonna plant is supposed to get an inch or two taller so I put it behind the May Night.

The two chewed up looking plants are phlox, and  yes, they were bunny food.  The daylilies and iris have escaped from Mr Bunny’s dinner table.  They haven’t bloomed this year and the markers faded, but all my phlox were deep pink or white.  The tall salvia spikes should be great contrast.

Did you buy any plants needing homes this fall too?  Drop a comment and let us know.