PlantFiles: Mexican Bush Sage
Salvia leucantha

A beautifull plant. The flowers are fuzzy and I cannot resist touching them!

Grows huge every season. It dies back in the winter and rebounds nicely every year . Hummingbirds are attracted to the flowers like a magnet .

I've tried it three times, and every time it just hasn't survived the winter. I don't know if the cold is killing it or if it's rotting out in our wet winters, but I've given up on it.

When I was growing up, my Mom put a berm in the backyard, & among the plants she covered it with, was one of these. It was shaded in the morning by a Pomegranate tree, but it grew & flowered wonderfully. Mom always pruned it in what I thought an unusual way: When the main flower spike on the end of a stem was done flowering, she removed the ENTIRE stem all the way back to the main stem. When this was done regularly & consistently, a new stem would quickly grow & start flowering, & the ones cut off were even more quickly replaced by others that were just waiting their turns! I later tried allowing all the flowers on each stem their turn to develop, thinking they might all become large spikes like the main ones on the stem ends . . . but they ever did, and the plant quickly became rangy & unpleasant to behold (by comparison). I recently asked a plant-grower in my area if he still carried this plant, but he had discontinued it because everyone had complained that it was coming up from seed like crazy, all over their gardens . . . IF they had pruned it like my mother always did, that could never have happened, and, their plants would have looked 100% more beautiful, too! . . . . . . . . . NOTE: Mom's sage was on a dirt berm, but not sheltered from winter rains, and it did GREAT!

This is my absolute favorite salvia. Fuzzy flowers and leafs, and the pests leave it alone! I've had horrible mealy bug infestations in my garden on all my other salvias, but they don't touch this one. The hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and sphynx moths love it! It's been in bloom since spring and is still looking gorgeous in late November.

Gets woody at the base. I trim it in mid summer. It spreads and will take over a flower bed quickly. Blooms Oct-Nov zone 9a. Hummingbirds like it.

A real knockout, graceful plant with furry looking amazing flowers, blooming at the end of the season. Hummers and butterflies are thrilled with it. Gorgeous!!!

I've thise Salvia for several years now, its growth habit seems a bit of restraint. It's in full bloom this time of year. Although, classified as 7b. Sometimes, due to microclimate influences; many zone 8's plants proven to be adaptive here where I'm.

Last year for the first time growing it (the purple/white one and the all purple one). I had plants of the all purple one growing in the ground and in a pot. I had the purple/white one growing in a pot.

Love them both! Furry and you 'just want to touch them' each time you walk past them.

Seemed to me that the ones I had in the ground bloomed sooner than the ones I had in large 20" plastic containers on the patio (all of them were in full sun).

Blooms late in the season.

10/25/07:

The all purple variety is a big favorite of my husband! In 2006, I had two of the all purple Salvias growing in the ground next to the driveway and he really loved seeing them every day they were in bloom. I found a different spot, but close enough to the driveway this year (annuals here in zone 6), pinched it back every so often and it's happier now than the ones in 2006.

This is a VERY hardy plant. After a year, it will spread by root. I had to dig it up and move it earlier in the spring, so I cut it way back. I was so scared I had lost it. It is now blooming beautifully! I even shared the new shoots with my mom.

Wonderful, easy-to-grow salvia! Blooms late summer and will bloom past our first frosts/freezes! Adds great color for late in the year. A butterfly magnet also!

I love this plant. It is so interesting. It blooms my favorite color too. I have two of these...one if blooming and the other is not blooming at all. They are planted in the same area so they get the same sun/water/etc. Any suggestions out there how I can get the other one to bloom? I live in Austin, TX. These are new plants I got a few weeks ago from Red Barn Nursery. Thanks.

This is a very tough, big ever-blooming salvia. In frost-free zones it is important to cut it back regularly, as it will continue to expand until it overruns all its neighbors. I have actually seen it start to break apart granite boulders. Tends to have a rather ungainly, somewhat wild appearance if allowed to grow without occasional pruning.

A really good landscape plant, likes an alkaline un- improved soil to slightly dry, plant can run by suckering along bottom edge so cut these out for new plants. Plant on 4-6 foot centers as they can eaisily be 3-5' round and tall. Cut back hard in fall to 1' in warmer (no frost) climates and it comes back like a true herb. Have seen hummingbirds feeding on this and have yet to see a major pest.
Have had extremely good luck on drip irrigation with emmiters 6" from base.

Even if you have only one of these in your garden, the hummers will come!

5-6' gray-green foliage on shrub-like plant produce 18" spikes of purple flowers with white tips. Must be kept dry in winter. Prune in mid-summer for better branching. Needs well drained soil.