It seems to depend. If May is warm and wet it will often bloom by late June here in Southern NJ. If May is cold then blooming usually starts in July. Once they start they never really stop until stopped be a freeze. Around here it can mean more than four months of bloom. Mine need periodic feeding to look their best over the whole season, the plants seems to wear out my sandy soil pretty quickly. These American subtropical herbaceous sages are very different in habit from the typical Eurasian temperate zone sages sold in stores.

Here my S.guaranitica "Black & Blue" starts blooming in Febuary and keeps going until frost in November.Our summers are dry here
so watering is very important to keep them flowering.
Your conditions are going to be different.Should work
fine as a perennial or bedding. Don't know if you have pine voles like Rich does in NC that may be a problem too.

Thank you wardda and hybridsage. That answers my question perfectly. I am zone 6 and do not currently have any B&B salvias but wanted to purchase some in the Spring for in front of my house. I am assuming that even though it is a tender perennial, it will bloom the first year, unlike many of the hardy perennials? I hope to try and overwinter them next year, but realize it is iffy in my zone. Some winters are milder than others so I figure it is worth a try.

Did you find your B&B salvias at local nurseries or did you order online? If one orders online, do you know a good source?

Thanks again,

Teresa

Teresa:
I bought mine years ago from Pat McNeal (A local Plant
expert/wholesale grower). Since then Lowes carries it.
You can purchase on line as well ie; Rich Dufresne (A World
of Salvias),Logee Greenhouses etc.. I also understand that some of the California Growers have a insect problem.It would be a good Idea to wait until they have that cleared up.They also root from cuttings real easy during summer.You may keep a few spares around in case it does not winter over.You may look back on some of the previous threads on
this website for overwintering info for your Zone.

Art

Pine voles are weak diggers and rely on mole tunnels for access to tuberous or rhizomatous plants. I discourage moles from digging around my plants by digging in a lot of crushed rock into the area of the underground food storage. This works, because moles are purely carnivorous, looking for earthworms and beetle grubs.

Even though August was cooler and wetter than last year, most of my sages were really late to bloom. Even the first year raspberry canes were late to fruit.