I think you will do well with microphyllas like San Carlos Festival. Wild Watermelon likes a cooler climate. La Trinidad is a good rose pink microphylla. Plum Wine is a greggii x microphylla that might work.

Hot Lips, Cherry Chief, and Maraschino are also pretty tough. Raspberry Royale is very similar to Plum Wine, but is a deep raspberry fuchsia. For me, I associate this color with red, not purple or black raspberries. All of the plants in this paragraph except Hot Lips originated in my earliest Greensboro, NC garden and are greggii x microphylls hybrids.

I have pink grggiis called Bazerkley that have have been blooming consistently for 12 years. If the greggiis do well for you, you might want to try this one.

My climate here in South Jersey doesn't get as hot as yours, but it can be bad enough.

Greggii Wild Thing flowers really well right through the summer, taking no breaks. It is also a wonder of hardiness, shrugging off summer drought and cold winter weather.

Microphylla San Carlos Festival is also very hardy here. The last couple of years, probably because of drought and heat, it has taken a long summer break and only came on well after mid August. Richard sent me a microphylla Neurepia a couple of years ago and it has proved to be a steady moderate bloomer all summer. In barren conditions here it grows to between 3 and 4 feet, but in rich garden soil in 2007 it reached over 6 feet, tallest by far of any of the bush sages.

Another hybrid that has graced the garden for about 5 years is Raspberry Delight. It actually reaches its peak in July when it out blooms all other cultivars. An established plant can get five feet across and by August is in need serious pruning. A pink flowered plant I suspect was a cross between this plant and San Carlos Festival is proving nearly as vigorous and also blooms the summer through.

Salvia X Cherry Queen is another summer long bloomer and the past two years has been the first to bloom.

Have you considered either of the microphylla x darcyi hybrids? They were new to me in the summer of 2008. Scarlet Spires in a xeric bed didn't make much progress but the ones planted in a fallow area of the vegetable garden did fantasic, sprawling to 5 feet or more across. They took until late July to really get started, but when they did what a show they made. They probably aren't hardy here but are well worth the trouble of wintering over as cuttings indoors. The other hybrid Silke's Dream didn't do as well in mid summer. They came quickly to bloom in June and looked like winners but flagged as the season progressed. The parent darcyi has never done well for me.

A couple of others that were new here last summer show real potential: greggii Coral and greggii Lipstick. Even though planted in a xeric site and as small cuttings they bloomed all summer and I suspect they are hardy. Richard's Navajo Bright Red has been with me for years and never fails to put on a show through the summer. Zone 7 seems to be the very edge of its hardiness, but if the crown stays dry in winter it is reliably hardy.

I wouldn't be without greggii White. It is hardy and blooms moderately during the summer. Wild Thing threw off several white-flowered seedlings in the past couple of years, one of which is so good that it may eventually replace greggii White in my heart. It is down the basement under lights and the cuttings will get a full trial this summer. The flower form on this one seems much improved over White. I'll spread it among gardener friends for a test. Wild Thing is proving to be the best stud in the stable.

If I were you I'd pay attention to your own seedlings. Who knows what you might get, and a few may turn out to be well adapted to your difficult conditions.

pricklypearsatx:
The Trick to getting any of the salvias to bloom better is
irrigation especially in the drought we are in.I have grow San Carlos I did not flower well here in Austin. GreenLeaf
Nursery has a pink greggii that performs very well. It is a form collected in the Del Rio area.A good prune (remove 2/3rd of plant) in in early March regenerating new growth from the crown.
Another light pruning in May will keep the blooms coming all summer with Irrigation of course. Chip Schumacher's Hill Country Nursery has lots
of greggii and microphylla cultivars. He is located in New Braunfels.
Art

I hope Chip is doing well.

I need to go see Chip. The Nursery is open 6 days a week.
The Raspberry that Picklypear is talking about is grown by
Colorspot Nurseries and is mislabeled. Theirs is burgandy in color and the true Raspberry Ripple is more in the violet blue range.Raspberry Ripple is a wild collected form from Mexico and likes it drier than this Burgandy Form . I need to do some research into what plant Colorspot is currently Marketing as Raspberry Ripple. It is not a good plant unless you growit in a pot very compact but flowering is pathetic. Mine is flowering the best it has flowered since being planted a year ago. I put it in with the seedlings of Raspberry Ripple.
Art

How does Raspberry Ripple compare with the greggii x lemmonii hybrid Raspberry Royale that I released long ago? I've never grown R. Ripple and have always wanted to try them side by side.

A plant marked greggii Raspberry appeared at a local market last summer. The tag didn't list the grower. It flowered moderately and grew to about 2 feet by 2 feet. There are far too many marked "Raspberry" out there, it is confusing.

Rich:
Salvia Raspberry Ripple has very small leaves looks like
a S. greggii x lycoides has a smell and habit very close to Navaho purple. The edge of the leaf is smooth definately
more like the pink greggii's but very dark Green foliage.
Habit is like what warda is describing.I still need to get a color chart from the Royal Horticulture Society that would help alot.Raspberry Royale is the only other cultivar I am aware of. Which has a more burgandy colored flower and
folige like S.lemmonii.It is available down here (No Bug Problems).I can send one up to you if you would like.
Art

My main interest in getting one from you would be to compare it wit my own plants, to verify its identification. I can't get Raspberry Ripple here, and I could get Tony Avent to trial it for comparison.

I will get a 4" plant.
When would be a good time to send it?
Art

Probably late February, or just at the start of spring. That will probably be the end of the botrytis season.

If you see Chip, let him know that I found a source of Salvia blepharophylla Dulces Nombres, and will spread it around to make sure it won't get lost. It comes from the type locality, and has the most prominent edge hairs that gives the species its name. It is harder to propagate than the other three forms in the trade.

Rich:
We will ship late February I will check to see how the
weather is on your end. I will let Chip know when I see
him. I am hoping to go see Armand Hufault Thursday. I will
keep you updated on things as they progress.I wish I could find some of the old forms of S.coahuilensis that Manuel
Flores had which were more open in habit. The picture that is on your website looks much like what is being sold here
as "Navajo Purple" the pic on Ball seeds site looks like S x "Pastel Purple" though the color is off.
Art

I have Manuel's Salvia coahuilensis and S. muelleri. I need to locate them and make sure they are still in good shape, though.