Go to the High Country Gardens site for more information

Here is a link that might be useful: Salvia greggii 'Wild Thing' ('Wild Thing' Bush Sage):

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Salvia Greggii "Wild thing" is the dark pink flowered plant in the middle of this pic. I can't speak to it's hardiness as we are in a much warmer zone than you but it is a wonderful plant for us. It is basically everblooming from spring until late November when we cut it back hard here in the desert. Of the quite a few Greggii's we've tried this is the best performer in our tough desert conditions.

Hope it's hardy for you, Maria

I doubt if Wild Thing would be hardy for you, maybe in exceptionally mild winters. You could take cuttings and over-winter them in a window - if it is sunny they might even bloom. It seems like the question for you is which bush sages make the strongest early growth and bloom the quickest. That way you could enjoy them as annuals. Wild Thing does make strong early growth for me. With the established sages it is usually number three. The hybrid Raspberry Delight and the hybrid Maraschino normally trade the top spot in growth, but Raspberry Delight is by far the better early summer bloomer.

Another method for early bloom is to order your plants well in advance of planting. These sages can make quite a bit of progress in March and April indoors. Of the 10 or so new types I've added this year all but two are now flowering; these young plants were well butchered for cuttings back in January and February but you would know it now.

Ward, you may be interested to know that S. greggii x lemmonii `Plum Wine' survived in a friend's garden in Granby, MA (USDA Zone 5) last winter, as did the S. reptans from western Texas. The latter was as lush as her S. azurea grandiflora. My friend's garden was a raised sandy loam bed on a southeastern exposure next to her house.

May be interested? I'm very interested actually. I bet the house gave her one zone higher. This spring I was surprised to find a very young greggii type seedling that must of germinated at the earliest in late summer. I wouldn't have thought it had enough time to establish itself for the winter. Then again winter didn't really begin until some time in January.

Karen's Granby garden had around a dozen very robust Salvia greggii seedlings also. She asked if I would be interested in finding out how they came out. You can guess what my answer was!

I bet you are. Don't you get the feeling we're still in the early stages of hardy bush sages; that hardier ones should be coming along soon as more north gardeners grow them? The microphylla seeding that grew so vigorously at the base of a greggii Navaho Bright Red did not survive the winter. I did make cuttings last year and it is being trailed in another location - a 2nd chance. All the original sages you sent me from which I took cuttings are in a long row at the edge of the vegetable garden and I'll be looking for seeds. I've left the other returning seedling in place and depending on its quality I'll take cuttings later in the summer after I've seen it flower.