Fine Gardening Magazine

Shop for books & more

All About Starting Seeds
Backyard Makeover Game
How to Grow Raspberries
25 Robust Summer Bloomers
Building a Compost Bin
Make Your Own Hypertufa Container
How to Start a Vegetable Garden
15 Deer-Resistant Plants
The Only Shrubs You Need to Grow
Viburnums are Versatile Shrubs
Enchanting Japanese Maples
Perfect Edges for Your Beds and Borders
Garden Catalog Collector
Lilacs: Time for a Fresh Look
Big Flowers from Bigleaf Hydrangeas
Friendly Ways to Battle Garden Pests
Off With Their Heads: Deadheading Perennials
A gardener's checklist for early summer
Find the Perfect Tomato
10 Perennials Easily Grown from Seed
Soil Testing is Worth the Effort
Design an Engaging Entryway
Variegated Plants Create Drama
Video: Make a Straw-Bale Garden
Cool-Season Annuals

Can you spot the flowers?

comments (0) October 11th, 2010 in blogs

Michelle Gervais, Associate Editor

18 users recommend

Click here to enlarge this photo.

Photo: Michelle Gervais

Add Comment
Print

Neither can I, because there are none! Well, they're there, but we just can't see them. Annual clary sage (Salvia viridis and cvs.) is such a cool plant. The colorful splash you see isn't its flowers, which are barely noticable. Instead, you're noticing the colorful, incredibly long-lasting bracts that form around the flowers at the tips of the stems. Sow seeds of this plant directly in the garden in spring. The resulting plants will grow up to 2 feet tall and 1 foot wide. They prefer full sun and average garden soil. The flowering stems are great in bouquets of either fresh or dried flowers. If the plants are happy, they will self-sow, but not annoyingly. You can also colloect the seeds and save them to sow next spring.

Check out the salvia page in the Fine Gardening online Plant Guide, where you'll find links to information on 36 more spectacular salvias!

Welcome to the Fine Gardening GARDEN PHOTO OF THE DAY blog! Every weekday we post a new photo of a great garden, a spectacular plant, a stunning plant combination, or any number of other subjects. Think of it as your morning jolt of green.

Sign up to get new posts delivered to your inbox each morning so you'll always remember to take a look, or subscribe to our RSS feed. We look forward to sharing our garden travels with you.

If you think you have a photo that we should share on the Garden Photo of the day, email us. Send hi-res images to mgervais@taunton.com with GPOD in the subject line. We'll only respond if we plan to use your photo.

Add Comment Print

A perfect marriage of plant and pot

Back to List

A successful experiment

Comments (0)

You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.

Welcome to the Fine Gardening GARDEN PHOTO OF THE DAY blog!

Every weekday we post a new photo of a great garden, a spectacular plant, a stunning plant combination, or any number of other subjects. Think of it as your morning jolt of green.

Sign up to get new posts delivered to your inbox each morning so you'll always remember to take a look, or subscribe to our RSS feed. We look forward to sharing our garden travels with you.

If you think you have a photo that we should share on the Garden Photo of the day, email us. Send hi-res images to mgervais@taunton.com with GPOD in the subject line. We'll only respond if we plan to use your photo.