Salvias Are Perfect For Summer Pots

Salvia Ember's Wish

A hot colour from Australia with glowing orange-red flowers make this a glorious plant. These are just about to perform now.


It's a bushy sub shrub with toothed, mid-green leaves. Max Height 80cm to 50cm. Max Spread 50cm. Flowers for 6 months. Full sun. Perfect for a low maintenance pot and can also be planted out in a border and no dead heading is required.

Salvia Love and Wishes

Love and Wishes is an  award winning plant, a bushy shrub with toothed, mid-green leaves. It has deep rose purple flowers. Max Height 80cm to 50cm. Max Spread 50cm. Flowers for 6 months. Full sun. Grows in a pot beautifully and can also be planted out in a border again no deadheading is required.

Similar to Love and Wishes but with deep rose flowers is Wendy's Wish. Max Height 80cm to 50cm. Max Spread 50cm. Flowers for 6 months. Full sun. Perfect for a low maintenance pot and can also be planted out in a border. No dead heading required here either, It just keeps going all summer.

Salvia Hot Lips

Hot lips has become a household name its a winning plant that frequently over winters. Similar growth and habit to the above but with Lipstick red flowers, white tipped red. Max Height 60cm to 90cm. Max Spread 50cm. Flowers June to September. It grows well in Full sun and often over winters. Hot lips fills a container beautifully and can also be planted out in a border.To get the best out of this woody sub shrub in its second year you must re pot it, feed it well and cut out the old finished shoots in the spring.

Hot lips now has a rival launched and in the runners up at last years Chelsea Flower Show. This is Amethyst lips

Hot lips now has a rival launched and in the runners up at last years Chelsea Flower Show. This is Amethyst lips

Salvia Amistad

Amistad is a plant everyone comes back for once they have grown it. It has mid-green aromatic leaves and royal purple long trumpet flowers. Maximum Height 90-120cm to 60-100cm. Maximum Spread 50cm. Full sun partial shade. Flowers from late May/June to late autumn. This can also be planted out in a border. It is half hardy so in a walled and reasonable sheltered garden in London it may over winter. Sacrificing this years blooms to encourage the plant to put more energy into its root system is possibly another way of encouraging this plant through the winter. The long tubular flowers make it a magnet for wildlife. This plant is a show stopper. It is great for filling substantial gaps in a border with abundant flower all summer. I also have customers who have successfully grown it in pots.

Salvias for summer do not stop here. Similar in appearance to the celebrity Hot Lips and Amethyst lips many of the gregii varieties I find ideal for pots and I have over wintered them but under the eves of my house with a little more warmth and shelter from the winter wet. This year there appear to be more new varieties. I am admiring a lovely lemon flower called Lemon Light and pretty blue variety Violin Music.