I have heard that some people have very good luck with the annual salvia where hummers are concerned. I seem my hummer checking them out but then they go to the larger perennial salvias. I still add them to my garden for the same reason that you bought them to add color until the rest of the plants take off and start blooming. My best hummer attractor is Salvia Guaranitca Black & Blue and they will hit that as soon as I put it in the garden. Mine that I grow in containers only reach a height of about 3 ft. but in the garden they can get about 5ft. tall. It is hard to tell from my picture but they have beautiful cobalt blue flowers

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Penny

Here is a link that might be useful: Salvia Guaranitica Black & Blue

I'm in Austin. Be sure to water them the first year, full sun. They should be great. Personally, I prefer the salvia greggii's for Texas. They stand up a lot better, but all salvias are gorgeous. The greggii's are native to west Texas, and you KNOW what that's like! They take the heat and the cold without a whimper and flower like crazy. Evergreen in winter here, like a small shrub.

greggii!

Salvia guaranitica is hands-down the best hummer attractor in my garden.

Is blue salvia, blue sage, the same as blue black salvia? OK so everyone knows how little I know.

Black and Blue Salvia is Salvia guaranitica. Blue sage could be several species; that's the problem with common names instead of the botanical name.

Joseph

The two general flower color ranges for Salvias are blue-lavender-purple and red-scarlet-fuchsia. The first are designed for bumblebees and honeybees, the second for hummingbirds and other hovering bird pollinators like sunbirds that have color vision. Bees have vision extending into the ultraviolet.

The blues are generally small, the reds usually large. Exceptions include guaranitica, which is a large blue flowered sage that is a hummingbird's favorite.

Common blue sages include farinacea and its hybrids like `Indigo Spires', reptans, patens, pratensis, nemerosa, hians, urica, chamaedryoides, glechomaefolia, muirii, and sinaloensis. These are either true blue or cobalt blue. The list would be much longer if I added the lavenders and purples.