Perennials: What\'s Blooming #3, 2 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
Oh, what nice comments!

Absolutely Kathleen Harrop (a pink Bourbon rose) and Marie Pavie (a polyantha) are fragrant, and better yet Kathleen is completely thornless and Marie Pavie is sparing with her thorns.

The salvia is not clary sage. It is hominum, also known as viridis. The difference is that clary sage tends to be biennial, so it might not bloom until its second year. Whereas hominum/viridis is commonly available in three colors: blue, pink and white, and it blooms within weeks of being sown. Here it is in pink - on October 28!

And blue and white together.

Tender perennial salvia is a mainstay of any garden I have had. Salvia farinacea (like Victoria Blue) and then there is salvia coccinea, which comes primarily in pink, red and white, as well as viridis/hominum. They all can be grown from seed during the course of the year. The difference is that viridis germinates virtually overnight. I put it on seed trays with water and it puffs up overnight. And the bracts, as they call the portion with the color, retain the color for weeks so you don\'t have to deadhead for weeks (the lazy gardener\'s delight). And then it seeds, so you not only get new plants the same season, but you get plants the next year.

And it\'s a fabulous blender/mixer that doesn\'t interfere with other plants. In the third picture is Rose de Rescht, fragaria vesca reugen and there is other stuff in that bed. It just blends right in. I found it in old books on annuals.

The third great plant of this type is salvia coccinea. It comes in coral, pink, white and red. I use it as another mixer.

These plants bloom from late spring to fall.

But the beauty of viridis is that, since the dried bracts are lovely, you can avoid deadheading for weeks. And then it drops seed so you can have it year after year if you want it. And then there is the almost immediate germination.

Did I mention drought tolerance?

Indispensable. Particularly nice in prominent locations because you don\'t have to tend to it but it will never shame you by looking bad.