Month: May 2021

Salvia ‘Desley’ is one of the outstanding performers in my garden. It flowers heavily and continuously through the year, in a rich plum colour that makes an excellent foil for other plants.  I have it in many spots, both full sun and part shade. ‘Desley’ is a shrubby, Salvia splendens -derived plant. It grows to 1.5 m in sun or higher in shade, as a rounded bush. Leaves are dark green and glossy, with indented veins, around 60 mm long by 35 mm wide toward the base, and tapered at…

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Salvia iodantha is big, flashy and unruly. Masses of fuchsia/magenta/red-purple flowers begin in mid-Autumn and continue on for months on long canes. I find the plant impossible to tame, although I’m not a persistent pruner. Left to itself, canes grow from the base to many metres long, then arch over at flowering time. When I have pruned it, it didn’t respond by bushing out, just sent out single branches of the canes, resulting in an unappealing shape. It’s definitely one for the background if you don’t mind it falling over…

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