I suggest you order Betsy Clebsch's book, The New Book of Salvias from Timber Press. She covers a wide range of sages both New World and Old World and her growing climate is somewhat similar to yours.

Two sites to visit on the internet are A World of Salvias and from that site there is a link to Robinssalvias. Both sites are full of information, and if you like pictures, Robin's is out of this world.

Hopefully you will check in now and then and tell everyone how you are making out, because I agree, salvias would be a great genus for you to grow.

Hi Melissa,

Welcome to the forum. Betsy Clebsch's book is great, but I would also recommend John Sutton's "The Gardener's Guide to Growing Salvias." This might be slightly more relevant for Europe. I live in the UK, and find both books most useful. ISBN no. is 0 7153 0803 3.

You may already know that there is a very good Salvia nursery near Lucca, www.leessenzedilea.com

Robin Middleton.

wardda and Robin,

Thank you both for the input. Both of the books sound good, and I'm likely to get them. I have a couple of 'Gardener's Guide' volumes already and they're excellent. Robin, I was vaguely aware of Le Essenze di Lea, and thought that, if I went looking for a source of Salvias in Italy, I probably would find one. It'll take a while to get going on them, as I won't be ordering anything until fall, but I'll report back in once in a while.

Thanks again.

Melissa

Your climate sounds similar to Southern California's. Here are some of my favorites from my garden:

Black Sage * Salvia mellifera
Blue Sage * Salvia clevelandii
Desert Sage * Salvia dorrii
Golden Sage * Salvia africana lutea (Salvia aurea)
Mexican Sage * Salvia leucantha
Pineapple Sage * Salvia elegans
Purple Sage * Salvia leucophylla
White Sage * Salvia apiana

All of these like unamended clay soils and all, except S. elegans, are exceptionally drought tolerant.

Dicot,
Thanks very much for the suggestions. Drought tolerance is essential, as our water is limited. Our climate is like parts of warmer, inland California, I believe. Can your suggested sages tolerate long periods of wet and temperatures in the thirties and forties? The temperature rarely drops below twenty here, though that happens too, but normal winter temperatures from mid-November through March tend to range in the thirties to fifties, and it rains a good deal then. It also freezes. (At least, usually: our winter this year was more typical of what you'd find in Sicily.) Naturally I'll be finding out these things for myself. I'm thrilled at the thought of a new group of drought tolerant plants.

Melissa

I'm in the Central Valley of California. We've had a very interesting year weather-wise: super hot summer followed by a cold winter with several weeks of freezing nights -- two extremes.
The Salvias that have survived with only some summer water and no cover in winter are:
S. greggii
S. leucantha
S. clevelandii
S. chamaedryoides
S. gramhammii x lemonii "Maraschino Cherry
S. "Indago Spires"
S. involucrata
S. x jamensis "Sierra San Antonio"
S. microphylla

I have many others, but I left them out because of water needs or they didn't do too well this past winter.

Melissa,

The white, black and desert sages (S. apiana, S. mellifera, S. dorrii) are all native to the high desert/ Sierra Nevada foothill areas and once established, can come back from frost and wildfire (but don't love sitting in water - plant slightly high so they drain). I'm not as sure about the others, but I bet the S. leucantha and leucophylla can grow in almost any Mediterranean climate.

Also, if your garden is large and you want tough plants from cuttings, I like the various mints. People are always warning that mints spread and take over - which is true, but I've got places in my garden where I really want that to happen. Maybe someday I'll be sorry, but I really enjoy planting S. African bulbs like freesia or ixia with spearmint or peppermint or catmint on top.

Wow--lots of good information.

Westelle, I think the Central Valley may be comparable to our conditions here, so your listed plants are ones that will go on my list.

Dicot, since our garden is on steeply sloping land, even with clay soil drainage is good. I let mints romp around in parts of my garden as well, but would Menta varieties grow in such dry conditions? I have a low-growing plant from a friend which I think is a catmint: I like it and am planning on taking bits of it to transplant to other areas for a low groundcover. I doesn't seem to interfere with daffodils coming up through it, is fragrant and pretty, and carefree.

Do you use groundcover thymes? T. longicaulis is creeping and very handsome, there are the forms of T. serpyllum, and T. pulegioides is another good one. All these are fragrant, and well suited to droughty conditions.

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions: they're really helpful.

Melissa

If you like ground cover plants for xeric conditions, try Salvia chionophylla, with silvery-white foliage that forms tufts of flowering stems in pockets of good soil it finds. It has the habit of a strawberry or potentilla. Also, S. thymoides, a miniature version of chamaedryoides. S. villosa (also of the Chihuahuan desert) will work as a gray shrublet.

You also have some nice rock garden like Teucriums like T. marum and T. subspinosum with aromatic foliage. The first has dolichodial, used by some insects for defensive purposes and very attractive to cats.