Salvia is a large genus of plants that includes shrubs as well as perennials and annuals. I have the beautiful Salvia May Night in my Lawn Bed, but I also have culinary sage, Salvia officinalis, in my Herb Bed.

There are many reasons to love salvia. It is an undemanding plant that will bloom again if it is sheared back after that first springtime bloom. There are also many cultivars, many in shades of blue, some in shades of purple or rosy lilac. My Bluestone Perennials catalog lists an even dozen cultivars including Wild Thing which is a bright cherry red, and Indigo Spires which is as much as five feet tall, but both of these are outside my zone. The Plant Delights Nursery has many more unusual salvias but most of those are at leasst zone 7 so a browse through that catalog just fills me with zone lust.

I am also happy that salvia is a deer resistant plant, and I hope that means it is rabbit resistant as well.

Do you have any salvias in your garden?