This plant has a famous generic name. It’s not to blame. It simply can’t help stealing the spotlight from everything else in the garden. One-time public garden showpiece. One-time weed. And all-time star of the perennial bed.
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There are 750 species of Salvia shrubs. Some are super hardy. Some need a little shelter. All love the sun. They come as annuals, biennials and perennials. Today we focus on the last group. Many originate from North America down to Mexico.
Most have soft, felt-like foliage; the flowers themselves being covered in downy (soft) hairs along with bright colours. As far as flower messages go, salvia or sage means esteem; to highly regard.
Back in 1915 the American western writer Zane Grey was up there in the top list of applauded writers in the genre. He is still referred to with respect. Public libraries world-wide stock his stories alongside the latest bestseller. His classic, ‘Riders of the Purple Sage’ (1912), was followed by the sequel ‘The Desert Crucible.’ They had spectacular settings near the Colorado River running through the ‘seamed and peaked border of Arizona.’
A ‘battlemented wilderness of Utah upland’ featuring the Rainbow Bridge of canyons with Paiute Indians and comely heroines. The plot follows a trail through ‘lofty places.’
The common sage of the rangelands, the ‘grey sagebrush with beautiful purple blossoms,’ takes centre stage on the rainbow trail.
In Australia, the purple S. verbenaca is called Wild Sage. However, it comes from Algeria and Europe. The American one, Mintweed or S. reflexa with glabrescent (no hairs) foliage, has been recorded to cause nitrate poisoning in stock. Another is called S. coccinea, or Texas Sage.
Mr Zane Grey recalls one bush named Indian paintbrush. It has scarlet flowers and often is found beside purple sage.
Truth is, we don’t know which species was dotted through the western stories as there are so many. It could be S. greggii, a twiggy, shrubby perennial from deserts in Texas and Mexico.
To me these salvias represent the western heroes of yesteryear or on the big screen. But learn to walk in our own shoes.
At Elizabeth Park in the sensory garden we have salvia leucantha (1x1m), commonly called Mexican bush sage. Not frost hardy, but comes back each year with valiant, dauntless gallantry. As well we have cleared a section near the gecko sculpture. We plan to plant another variety of salvia. It’s the bright colours which make it popular. Although personally I can picture a westerner riding a black mustang horse through the sagebrush, and of course he wins the day.
