salvia argentea

Sarge (Salvia argentea) is getting ready to bloom, but mostly I was trying out a new lens on my camera. Most people are only interested in the leaves of this salvia, but the blooms are rather impressive. The thing about plants like this is that they aren't interested in impressing us. They are more interested in getting along with the business of reproduction. So instead of staying in a vegetative form and producing mounds of impressive leaves, they put out leaves as quickly as they can to produce energy for flowering. So the leaves are at their peak for only a week or two before their energy goes into the blooms. Of course, they are beautiful all the way up to that point as well.

the candelabra of blossoms beginning to form

Some people say that the leaves change from impressive silver to a dull green after blooming. They cut the developing flower stems before they bloom, saying that it prolongs the silvery quality of the leaves, as well as prolonging the life of the plant. I suppose that the fully formed leaves are not as densely hirsute as the young leaves. But when I tried cutting off some of the developing flower stems I noticed no difference between the leaves of those plants whose flowering stems I cut and those I left alone. So I leave them now, and enjoy the show.

flower buds developing

Then again, the leaves of my plants aren't as silvery as some of those in photos that I see. They aren't quite the same as those in the stores that I see either, the leaves of mine being more of an olive color, and with serrated edges, a pointed tip and a smoother appearance, whereas those I see in the stores,  on-line, and at the Scottish botanical garden, seem to have a more rounded, ruffled appearance to the leaves, like giant silvery oak leaves. When I bought the plants, they looked like all the rest, but now they look like this, and even the seedlings don't have that rounded look.

the most silvery of my plants

I haven't noticed any difference in the longevity of a plant from cutting the flowers off either. The only thing that kills my plants is trying to transplant them (even seedlings) or watering them. I tried keeping one moist to try to get more impressive leaves, and was rewarded with collapse and rot. I tried a few times, in fact, and got the same results. So they get no water now, they are allowed to bloom, and self-seed enough that I have to thin the seedlings. By the way, if you let the seeds mature, be careful when trying to harvest the seeds and removing the dead stalk: all those bracts are quite sharp and can draw blood.