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Salvia farinacea
Also called Blue Sage, Mealy Sage, Mealy Cup Sage, Mealy Blue Sage
Mealycup sage is a perennial salvia from Mexico and the southern US, grown for its violet-blue flower spikes. It thrives in full sun and well-drained soil, and it is a favourite of bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
Salvia farinacea, the mealycup sage, or mealy sage, is a herbaceous perennial native to Nuevo León, Mexico and parts of the United States including Texas and Oklahoma. Violet-blue spikes rest on a compact plant of typically narrow salvia-like leaves; however, the shiny leaves are what set this species apart from most other Salvia, which bear velvety-dull leaves.
This plant requires full or partial sun and will grow to 18 inches or more with good soil and will attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. The plant is hardy to USDA Hardiness Zones 8–10. Many varieties are frequently reported to be hardy to zone 7 when well sited and left to stand over winter, waiting to cut back until late winter or early spring. Longispicata x farinacea hybrids are often reliably hardy to zone 7. The plant flowers from June to frost, or as early as April for mature clumps. In the southern US it can make a stunning, long lived specimen as a solitary plant or en masse. In the temperate latitudes, it is cultivated as an annual plant and used as an ornamental plant in parks and gardens, especially in summer discounts. It can also be used as a cut flower.
Several cultivars are cultivated, such as 'Blue Bedder', 'Victoria' with intense violet-blue flowers and 'Strata' with white and blue flowers. Crosses between S. farinacea and S. longispicata (S. longispicata × S. farinacea) are widely sold as ornamental plants, such as 'Indigo Spires' and 'Mystic Spires Blue'.
Egyptian Sage · Mediterranean sage · White sage · Brown Sage · Santa Rosa Island sage · Buchanan's Sage · Guatemalan Leaf Sage · Candelabra Sage · Cayman sage · Fragrant sage · Blood sage · Chia
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Salvia farinacea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
