PlantFiles: Forsythia Sage
Salvia madrensis

This is a fun plant. I bought a little one a couple of years ago at a Master Gardener plant sale, but had no information except that it was a yellow sage. I planted it near the front of the border assuming it was a typical sage. WRONG! It gets really big (5'), so I'll be moving it to the back of the border this winter. The flowers are 12-18" long and it blooms in the Fall when little else does. I have a vase of them on my breakfast table right now in late October. One tip: Cut them back in early summer or you may wind up with a small tree trunk which can get top heavy and fall over.

I have several of these plants in my yard, they bloom in the fall on 1 foot flower spikes atop 6-8 foot stalks, really quite a site. I have some in shade and some in almost full sun. I would say the ones in the shade look healthier. Mine bloom in the fall from mid September through November, and attract butterflies and hummingbirds. The areas were I have these planted, the ground in that area is covered with overlapping landscape cloth and then a 4 inch layer of mulch. These plants tend to send out runners and can quickly become quite invasive at least in zone 8B and I am sure further south also. One plant can produce 5-8 runners, that can be easily dug up. I have found the combination of landscape cloth and mulch prevents the occurrence of runners. So this is a tall and elegant yellow flowering sage but caution should be taken into consideration when planting it.

This is a beautiful plant, and very hardy here. It spreads a lot by suckering. I don't think it self-seeds, since in 10 years, they haven't shown up very far from the original plants. One caveat: the pollen leaves a brown stain on cloth that doesn't wash out. Be careful about brushing against it or where you put a vase.

Beautiful in zone 8b, blooms late summer untill frost. Very showy salvia, a favorite of BB & hummers! Have been grow it for about 10 years and love it~

This salvia will only bloom around October-November here in MS..sometimes it gets killed to the ground by frost before it blooms. Maybe it is a great plant elsewhere, but not in central MS zone 8.

I bought this plant from a mail order nursery in North Carolina a year ago. It started out small, but then it grew tall... It's about 6.5 feet tall, and has been blooming since April or May, I forget which.

It has an intriguing growth habit, at least in my yard, twisting and curling its spikes even through the fence behind it. It gets very little shade, so I must assume this is normal. It has not self seeded a great deal. There are two seedlings under it I think, I'll know when I go to move them elsewhere. I plan to deadhead so there are not too many seedlings. But, salvias are not hard to pull out where they're not wanted, so I'm not overly concerned.

Overall, I'm pleased with this plant. It is not your average salvia.

This pix is the beginning of the bloom stalk. Some stalks can be as long as 24".
Most interesting characteristic, not found in most salvia, is the square to hexigon shape of the stem! Not round at all!