The largest Salvia flowers are undoubtedly those of Salvia dombeyi, 4 inches long. This is truly spectacular, if somewhat temperamental! Others with large flowers are all the forms of S. gesneriiflora, S. splendens, S. patens 'Guanajuato', S. fulgens, S. dorisiana, S. regla, S. gravida, just to mention a few. You can see pictures of this on my site www.robinssalvias.com .

Best regards, Robin.

"Salvia dombeyi, 4 inches long" Wow! Where can I find that one? I didn't quite expect to hear 4 inches ...;-)
I thought dorisiana was a bit larger from the pictures. That is on my list to find this year. Is 'Guanajuato' true from seed? I thought 'Blue Angel' was the big patens cultivar, so I've wanted that one for a while. Darn, I didn't trade for 'Guanajuato'when I had the chance!

Your site is wonderful Robin, it is overwhelming to see that although I've gathered tons of Salvia seeds & plants there are still so many more!

Rose

Get Salvia dombeyi from Digging Dog Nursery. They have other choice salvias as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Digging Dog Nursery

Is there a synonym for Salvia dombeyi? I didn't see it on the Digging Dog site. I need to wait for spring anyway as I am overwintering way too many in the garage!

Rose

Check out Indigo Spires too!

I'll have to call Deborah at Digging Dog to see if she has any available. There may be a few, but not enough to list.

Re Indigo Spires: Are you wanting us to include dense spikes as well as individual flowers?

RE: spikes vs individual flowers- large individual flowers on loose spikes rule in my mind! I guess that's why I prefer the marginally hardy or non-hardy Salvias to the more commonly seen superba or nemerosa cultivars. It's why I would choose one Agastache rupestris over a million foeniculums or... you get the idea!
Do you all feel that way too?

I do think Indigo Spires is very pretty though.

Rose

What I think of is patens I'm sure there are much larger flowers but to me that's the one that comes to mind. Here's my last picture taken on the 14th of this month

When we grew S. 'Indigo Spires', I measured one of the blooms at 9 inches. The whole plant grew much larger then I expected and keeping it in bounds was a full-time job. Great plant though.... I want to start another one if I ever have a place for it again.

Jen

S. dombeyi would be the largest flower as far as Salvias are concerned.
Jen, did you mean the inflorescence of 'Indigo Spires' when you measured 9"? The actual flower is quite small. The inflorescence can grow to be as long as 3 feet plus.
Here's my S 'Indigo Spires' planted among the penstemon:
(click on pic for larger image)

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One of my favorite Salvia flowers is that of glutinosa. The flower is about and inch and a half and there are many blooms on numerous inflorescences. The leaves are very large, too, and the whole plant is just gorgeous.
(again, click on pic for larger image)

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Cait

Cait,

Oh yeh... I meant the inflorescence. Thanks for correcting me. :-)

Jen

Wow, great pictures everyone!
Nice to see your patens, Sarah, mine was in bad soil in a pot that probaly got overwatered & didn't even bloom this summer! I was overwhelmed with planting out winter sown plants, I didn't get to some I overwintered...
Cait1, love your pix, too. That indigo spires is something, I never saw such long spikes. I think I will start a new thread for biggest spikes to see whaat comes up.
I plan to grow glutinosa from seed this summer. Nice to see it has decent sized flowers!
Rose

Rose I found a picture of S. Dombeyi at the link below. Boy it is really a strking flower!

Penny

Here is a link that might be useful: Salvia Dombeyi

That's a great picture. It looks even prettier close up. Can you imagine a 4 inch long flower? Initially I was surprised to see that the flowers were drooping. Now it's easy to understand why it's so pendulous when you consider the size. It would need a foundation for the flowers to be more horizontal!
Rose

I just saw a Salvia Wagneriana, the flowers were 4" and the salvia was ten feet tall, and at least that wide! I never saw a salvia that looks anything like this. It was up against a fence and I thought that it was some type of vine. Does anyone grow this?
Diana

I've grown it. There are two forms, one with creamy off-white bracts and the other with both pink bracts and flowers. It is related to S. involucrata. Both have involucres (a `bud' made of immature bracts and flowers usually globular in form.

Here is a link that might be useful: Salvia wagneriana

Robins salvias...I am very impressed by the 250 photos of different salvia varieties! If you haven't seen this list, do go there!

Here is a link that might be useful: 250 different salvia pics with names and descriptions.

Salvia mexicana and S. regla forms tend to have the best of both flower size and density and size of inflorescence. Along with fairly persistent colored calyxes, they put on pretty impressive shows. Toss in S. madrensis for good measure.