• Sun to Part Sun
• Long season bloomers
• Attract bees and hummingbirds
• Plant in well-drained soils
• Aromatic leaves

The post Sage appeared first on The Good Earth Garden Center.

Arkansas Blue Star – Amsonia hubrichii

It makes sense that this perennial loves our summer heat, given that it is native to Arkansas! The leaves are needle-shapes but soft to the touch.  Each shoot waves gently in the breeze, making it a wonderful texture addition to a sunny spot.  This perennial gets its name not only by location but by the blooms; light blue, star-shaped flowers. Another outstanding feature is the fall color it offers; a bright gold! Mature size is 32- 40″ in height and width, making a wonderful option as a background plant in a perennial border garden.

Shasta Daisy – Leucanthemum

So much to love about this perennial, not the least of which include abundant, bright white blooms that stand strongly above medium green leaves. There are taller growing varieties like Becky (grows to several feet tall) and smaller growing ones like Christine, which tops out around 10 inches in height. Width varies by variety as well; clumps can be divided and shared with friends. Shastas are long lasting cut flowers too!

Sedums

Sedums have been around forever but there are constant additions to these garden favorites! These are perennial succulents, whose leaves store water, making them very heat and drought tolerant once established.  Some varieties are low growing groundcovers (like Lemon Ball and Lime Zinger) and some are upright, such as Thundercloud (a more compact and vibrant blooming improvement on Autumn Joy) or Plum Dazzled. Leaf and bloom color vary widely too. Leaves might be lime green, green with colorful edges, variegated, purple, or blue-gray. Blooms may be insignificant or stunning; it all depends on variety! Sedums are perfectly at home in rock gardens.

Meadow Sage – Salvia

This is another genus of perennial that has many variations to choose from!  This one is a Salvia greggi called Heatwave Blaze… and it’s pretty obvious why; that red is blazing red. This one is bigger than some of the other salvias and grows to about 30 inches tall with a width of around 36 inches.  Hummingbirds and other pollinators love this perennial! Heatwave Blaze has a long bloom season; from spring to fall.  May Night is another popular salvia; it features purple bloom spikes above gray-green foliage.  These plants may not look much alike but they do share a very important feature; they both love the heat, bloom for a long time and are wonderful in water wise gardens, due to being drought tolerant once established.

Russian Sage – Perovskia

Both salvias and perovskia are both called sage, they aren’t in the same plant genus although they are both in the mint family. They are both heat and drought tolerant once established though and the plant form and blooms are similar. Russian sage as these gorgeous fern-like, serrated, gray colored leaves on shoots that end in soft lavender purple blooms. Right now, we have Denim ‘N Lace and Sage Advice. Did we mention they are deer resistant?

Hardy Ice Plant – Delasperma cooperi

This low growing groundcover perennial is a perennial succulent, like sedum.  However, Ice Plant features a totally different looking bloom; frilly star-shaped magenta colored flowers that look similar to an aster bloom. It’s very low growing, with a height of only around 2 inches, but spreads out significantly to around 20 inches. As you would guess, this one is drought tolerant as well!

Our perennial department is currently full of these beauties and many more; it’s a wonderful time to stroll through both our sun and shade perennial departments!

The post Beautiful Perennials that Thrive in Hot Weather appeared first on The Good Earth Garden Center.

Image Source

This blog post was contributed by Jen Mistretta, Good Earth’s perennial grower.  Her garden is show stopping and she is always trying new plants; plus, she is always up for sharing her tips and tricks for ultimate success!  Keep reading for all the reasons Mystic Spires makes it onto her must-have list.

From the Garden of Jen M.

This impressive Salvia has been around for awhile, but few realize just amazing it is. In the spring they can get overlooked especially if there aren’t any blooms yet.  I was very much impressed, all summer long.

Designing with Mystic Spires Salvia

Every year I do a big seasonal color flower bed in my front yard.  I play around with different colors, textures and plants.  Last year I got 5 of the Salvia Mystic Spires and while they are perennial I decided to put them in my front flower bed. The tag reads as follows: Grows 18-30” tall. Sun to part sun. The internet indicated perhaps taller.

My approach to this flower bed starts off with a solid plan and loosens up once I start shopping.   Suddenly ideas start expanding, and oh yeah, I need some of that too is said often.  The next thing I know I have a heap of plants that I need to transform into a solid plan.  Again.

In the end I wound up putting these guys in front of Begonia Big.  Which as the names suggest gets 24” tall or so.  I figured by putting them in the middle would work itself out one way or another.  There was some tropical plumbago and some purple fountain grass involved nearby and behind as well. The Salvia Mystic Spires grew so fast it shaded out the begonias behind them, causing them to not grow at all which I thought could happen. Begonias take a bit longer to get going I have noticed.  The plumbago and purple fountain grass behind them grew in and in the end it worked out.  The begonias got edged out, that’s all.  Overall growth was 36” tall and a good 24” wide.

The Salvia bloomed ALL summer, even in the heat.  And it didn’t care about the humidity as I did.  My neighbors ooh and ahhed all summer and always pointed out the Mystic Spires each and every time.

Don’t forget to feed your Salvia

What I did was this, fertilized and fertilized often! Use the Ferti-Lome Bedding Plant food or Osmocote (both of these are time release) when planting and water in with a liquid soluble fertilizer such as BR-61, or Miracle-Gro.  Reapply the time release 3 months later and continue with a twice monthly liquid feeding.

Professional Tips

Pinch off the tips (like you would a Coleus).  How far down depends on the height of the plant when you buy it.  By doing so, you will have a thicker, more branched out plant which in turns equals to more flowers later.

Deadheading was not a big deal with these.  Every week or so, I would pinch off the old flowers and smile, seeing that there were new flower spikes everywhere.

In the fall when it was time to rip out my bed, I dug up the Salvia and transferred them in the back yard.  I had also cut them hard, in horticulture speak means that I cut them pretty far down, to about 8-10” tall.

Caterpillars can possibly bother all Salvias, meaning they can eat the flower buds.  Just watch for the “frass” which is caterpillar droppings left on top of the leaves.  Spray Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT), it is very safe to use and doesn’t hurt butterflies or bees.

Mystic Spires Salvia Awards

2018 Texas superstar plant by Texas A&M agrilife research

2018 4.72 out of 5 at the Penn State flower trials

2017 One of the best drought tolerant perennials Dallas Arboretum

2017 4.15 out of 5 at the Young’s Plant Farm in Alabama

The post Why I Love Mystic Spires Salvia appeared first on The Good Earth Garden Center.