PlantFiles: Mexican Bush Sage
Salvia leucantha 'Midnight'

This grows extremely well here as an annual. I didn't get it planted until June, and it still grew to about 4' tall and equally wide and had a wonderful flush of blooms. Heavy rains caused it to droop to the ground, but it always regained its form and didn't require staking. The season was too short for any seeds to set, but the blooms stayed until the first hard frost. Visited all the time by honeybees, it even drew a couple hummingbirds.

Atlanta - Mine get over 5' tall - see photo. The first year I grew this plant, I was shocked to find what looked like a hundred dead bees on it early in one morning. I realized they were sleeping on it! The bees just love this plant.

It benefits from pinching out and you can plant the pieces. Roots easily.

Seems to be reliably hardy in my area - has come back the past 4 years. Good winter drainage is essential. I have mine growing next to the house where the soil is dry and nothing else will grow. Blooms from late September until frost in my area.

This plant is highly drought tolerant and very resistant to disruption or attack, springing back every year. I chop it back almost to the ground in places in the winter. It blooms almost constantly and the foliage is pretty if it hasn't been allowed to get too gangly.

It has the potential to be invasive but is pretty easy to weed out; I have kept it confined to its original space.

In my first few years I had an infestation of spit bugs which favored this bush (though they used others) for their eggs. They were dealt with by removing the spitty egg cases and I haven't seen them in the last year or so. We don't use pesticides.