salvia chamaedryoides

Salvia chamaedryoides, the "dwarf-like salvia" has got to be one of my favorite plants. In a family that has many wonderfully blue flowers, this salvia has some of the most intensely blue that I've seen.The plants are small, especially compared to the bigger salvias, in my yard growing barely a foot tall, although in warmer climates I've seen them bigger. It blooms all summer and into the fall, although the first bloom is the most impressive. The leaves are grey, and are attractive in themselves, except that their greyness diminishes the impact of the blue flowers. Plants spread both by seeds and by underground stems, and in my un-irrigated garden, not in an aggressive way. It survived -11F this winter without difficulty, looking no difference from previous years.

This plant is not without its faults, however.  The plant's winter appearance is a bit shabby, and dieback occurs in an irregular way, with some branches dying back entirely, and others showing no damage.
This makes for a very irregular plant, with the random living branches sticking out beyond the basal growth. To avoid this, I trim my plants nearly to the ground in the spring.

With irrigation and a more fertile soil, the flowers are much larger and the plant growth more vigorous.  I see them planted in mixed-planting containers and they are just beautiful. But this plant is tough enough to look good without irrigation and without soil amendments.