salvia pachyphylla

There is no question that Salvia pachyphylla is a dramatic plant. Flower bracts are large, with the heads being a good 6-8 inches, and in a vibrant red-purple (not my favorite color, but it does stand out in the garden). The true flowers are violet blue. The leaves are attractive, being spathe shaped, grey-green, and evergreen (evergrey). They are completely rabbitproof, and if you touched them, you'd know why. The leaves are sticky, and so heavily resinous as to leave your hands sticky and fragrant when touching them. Plants are tolerant of dry soil.

Let me rephrase that. Plants need dry gravelly soil, and dry atmosphere. When trying to grow them in pots, especially in a peat-based mix, they inevitably rot. Even in the ground, if irrigated too much (which seems to be, in my garden, any drip irrigation at all) they develop wilt, with large branches suddenly wilting until the whole plant is dead. This happened to my favorite plant, which had huge flower heads of 10-12 inches. Fortunately it had self layered, and fortunately, I had separated out a layer into another unirrigated part of the garden before this happened. The plant shown above is a seedling of that plant.

Once wilt develops, it is said to be in the soil indefinitely, and new plants planted in the same location to replace the dead ones may quickly succumb to the soil-borne disease.

Plants are a bit tricky to get established for this reason. If ignored they can turn crispy-dead in the summer heat. If irrigated in the heat, molds can quickly develop. It is best to irrigate only slightly, and only when the plants show signs of wilting (you have to look closely to determine this, as the plant hardly looks different until it is crispy-dry). After establishment, no irrigation is best unless the plant looks very drought stressed. Then just a bit, to perk up the plants. Interestingly, the plants that I purchased from High Country Gardens look different than those I purchased from Agua Fria Nursery. Those from AFN have wavy leaves and narrower heads.

Allowing self-sown seedlings to grow in desired areas is the best way to establish new plants, although in my climate, the winter may kill off the little ones. With such little irrigation, the plants grow slowly, coming to blooming size in perhaps 3 seasons, rather than the one season with irrigation (if the plants survive). Patience is rewarded with longer lived plants.

By the way, the color of the bracts almost perfectly matches the color of the pads of 'Santa Rita' opuntia.