PlantFiles: Hummingbird Sage, Texas Sage, Scarlet Sage
Salvia coccinea

It does reseed easily--I find it sprouting in other places around the beds. But the hummingbirds love it, so if the new plant grows in a good place, what's not to love? If it grows in the wrong place, it's easy to pull out and toss. I got my starts from the shady side of our post-oak savannah yard, just south of San Antonio, where it grew to 18" high or so. Moved them to the sunny flower beds along the front of the house where they thrived and brightened for several years. I've since brought seeds to the new place we live in and will plant them in a spot out back under the Arizona Ash. Guess I'll see how they do in this heavy black clay as opposed to the sand where I found them.

what everyone else said and oh my, it does re-seed! i have them everywhere. mine are growing throughout the garden. some are in full sun and some have come up under other plants and get more shade. it doesn't seem to matter. they just keep going. the original plants did die over the last winter even though it was a very mild one.

i'm changing my rating. this plant would be great treated as an annual out of its hardiness zone but i have to say that it is a garden THUG in a warm zone. it re-seeds faster than you can pull them and grows so fast that it totally crowds out everything in its path. i just filled a trash can with plants and that was in one small bed. it will probably take years to eliminate it completely...or maybe never. time will tell.

I bought one plant many years ago and now my yard is full of them, they reseed and are very hardy. They even grow in the cracks of my patio stones, I just pull them up and put them in a pot and they continue to grow. I've given many away to friends. The bright scarlet red flowers are the first to bloom each year, in fact it is the end of January and I have a bloom on one now. They will freeze if out in the open, but if under plant/tree canopy or close the house they over winter very well. Easily can be pulled up where you don't want it or move it to where you do. Blooms all year but does seem to prefer shadier areas than the full sun. I love this plant.

I bought this plant at a hummingbird festival last fall and overwintered it in a pot in the garage with minimal care, and this summer it is blooming like crazy and about three feet high and covered with flowers

I have this plant all over my yard. It reseeds and I just pull the seedlings out of the ground where I find them and I place them where I want. They grow well in pots, in the shade and in full sun. I just pinch them if I want the plant to fill out a bit. This plant is so easy to grow in south Florida so I have started collecting salvias. None of the salvias I have purchased is as easy and carefree as this great plant.

In Portland, the Hummingbird Sage still has flowers in early November, a bonus for the birds themselves. I planted it in a very hot southern exposure in composted soil, however I hope it seeds in the dry clay nearby.

had never tried this before...even with a cool, very wet spring.
the plant just took off. have had my very first anna hummingbird around all the blooms.
a GREAT plant

This is a great hummer plant, but it is very invasive in south Texas. It comes up everywhere including cracks in the drive way. I pull the stuff up all the time and throw it away. The pink and white Salvia Coccinias are not as invasive. Keep it under control if you live in a hot climate or throw it out in a field and let it go.

This plant needs part shade to shade in my location. Jowever, with too much shade, it does not bloom profusely. It needs spaced from 1 foot to 2 feet apart. It is a native plant that can be found growing in woodlands and hilly slopes in the Edwards Plateau Region of Texas as well as other poarts of east and south Texas. I have found that it perforns better in poorer drier soil; otherwise, it becomes leggy, the leaves become speckled with light green spots and the blooms are fewer. It has a high deer resistance due to the pumgent odor of its leaves. It is a short lived perennial that reeed profusely. To encourage fullness, prune it removing the top half at the end of May. After the first frost has browned its leaves or in mid-winter, cut it to about 3" from the ground. It is one of my best butterfly attractors.

Grows quickly and has attractive red blooms. I initially planted a mass of them after reading about their ability to attract hummingbirds. Interestingly enough, while I did notice the resident hummingbirds checking the red blooms out ever so briefly, they seemed to quickly bypass them in favor of dining on the red monarda not far away.

However I was quite pleasantly surprised when I saw that these salvia had attracted the first tiger swallowtail I've seen in my garden! There would be one or two tiger swallowtails at the "lady in red" salvia patch daily during the summer and they'd stay for seemingly hours. Bees also tended to visit in frequency.

Beautiful, easy to grow and aromatic (minty). Self-seeds reliably. Hummers and butterflies love it. Blooms early.

Carefree native (Louisiana) often found growing in harsh environments like roadsides, but frequently seen also in woodland and marsh edges. A favorite of hummingbirds.

I've grown S. coccinea for more than ten years. The one I have is brilliant red, and proved tougher than the pink form. I just bought the white form, and so far it is doing great, but the jury's still out for it.

Texas sage is tough and tolerant. Here in west central Florida it is perennial, and reliably so. At my old place, I left a plant that was at least nine years old, growing happily in partial shade (afternoon sun) under a Valencia orange tree.

I didn't have to try to pot one to bring to the new place, I knew a seedling would come up in a pot of something else. One less pot to move was GOOD. I found three, and they were very welcome. The seedlings are easy to pull where you don't want them, and easy to move to where you do. They much prefer good drainage and better dirt, and grow best in six hours of direct sun.

If you like red, and you like red during all warm months, this is a good plant to have. It is one of about a dozen plants I wouldn't garden without.

This plant is well-suited for xeriscaping being drought-tolerant. The natural form has an intense red blossom which hummingbirds and butterflies love. It is very striking when planted in large groupings. It is considered a short-lived perennial and will reseed itself. Pruning of the spent flowers will promote flowering.

It is easy to grow, reseeds, and blooms from July until frost.

Approximately 18" X 18". Reseeding tender perennial. May be sheared to keep shorter. Very easy to grow. In Texas, we usually treat it as an annual.

Nice flowering color.