Salvia ‘Blue Hill’

(Sage)

Salvia Blue Hill is a compact little perennial with deciduous mid-green colour foliage. Its thought provoking slender lipped blooms have a majestic appearance due to their royal purple-blue colour. The intense flurry of colours bloom from Summer through to Autumn and set off all the low spots in your garden, making the perfect under planter beneath your taller shrubs or roses. With little maintenance your Blue Hill will complete a range of garden looks such as; City and Courtyard gardens, Mediterranean designs, Flower borders or container gardens, Wildlife and Country cottage gardens or even Industrial Modern designs will stand in contrast with this standalone beauty! Salvia Blue Hill is drought tolerant once established and so a perfect perennial to pop into those places that will not receive much water. In addition to striking a look, this gorgeous Salvia is known as being one of the best pollinator attractors to an abundance of Wildlife in decline yet, is resistant to many diseases and are also resistant to deer and rabbits. Salvia Blue Hill is very easy to care for and requires very little maintenance. A few things that keep it happy are sunny sheltered spots in the garden with moist but well drained soil, it’s an easy balance to find, usually in your borders in those gaps we don’t know what to do with.  Once you pop it into its home, it will throw out plumes of colour all Summer long. Once the flowers fade, a quick chop, and it will flower again and again all Summer. Enjoys full sun but light shade is tolerated, remove spent flower spikes to promote further blooms and cut back once flowering is over. During the first year water at least once a week during dry periods, decreasing to every other week once established. Feed in spring with a balanced, slow release fertiliser for strong growth.

Salvia Blue Hill likes any position in the garden with a light level of sun. It prefers a sunny, but sheltered position and grows well in rich, fertile soils provided they are moist, but well-drained. If your soil does not drain that well we advise that you can add some sand or grit when planting which will help with this. You can tell if your soil is healthy if there is plenty of underground activity such as plant growth, earthworms and fungi. Alternatively, you can purchase a testing kit which will let you know what type of soil you have.

Salvias can get all the moisture they need from rainfall; once established they are drought tolerant, so it is minimal maintenance if planted into your flowerbeds. Due to the thick foliage and flowers on our compact Salvia we recommend watering regularly as rain rarely reaches the soil if your little one is in a pot. The best way to fertilise your Salvia is by removing any mulch and adding a 1-inch layer of compost. This is best done at the beginning of the Salvia flowering season in June.

Our Salvia will relentlessly flower all Summer if you can follow these few tips; as flowers fade, cut the flowers away as this will encourage the plant to keep producing new plumes of bright colour. Salvias like a well-drained soil so if your soil is clay soil your small but mighty plant would fare better in pots, containers or even window boxes.