Wow, great ideas! I like your combinations, Robin. And it's a great idea to have a lot of one type of Salvia to focus an area, Westelle. Also like repeating plants in the areas you can see. I guess my problem is that I have several collections and I am starting by growing one or 2 plants of each - to see if I like them. That adds up to a lot of "specimen" plants. One of the problems is that my beds in the back are mainly long perennial beds with no bones to speak of. The front yard looks better cause I had a plan for the bones & just added perennials where they'd fit. Actually that is the area of more steady temperatures. What a great explanation of micro climates, Rich. That is totally my problem. The back of the house faces south to southwest. Plants that look fine in the blazing sun one day will shrivel up & die the next. I need to be careful to shade them for a bit of time when they're new. I have most of my beds in full sun at the rear of my house & a long side border which gets afternoon shade from my neighbors at the top of the picture's pines. I am in the low area & I have a slope going up to my neighbors in the rear. Actually there are a couple of swales running across my yard dividing the slope. Those areas can be like a river during a storm and then dry out pretty well the rest of the time. The slope is facing the house thus northeast but is not very steep & with no trees to shade it, it is in full sun for most of the day. That's in the summer. In the winter there seems to be quite a bit more shade as the other neighbors also have pines. This picture is from Microsoft TerraServer - taken several years ago, before any of the beds in the rear were created. The top of the picture is north. It is set with each side being exactly North/South/East/West. The large thing in the rear is a swing set with maples shading it. One day that may be a screened pagoda(in my dreams). Currently there are beds along the houses rear & sides & one long bed by my neighbor's pines to the North (on the picture). The arrow shows the hill & the curved line shows the major swale. I had an idea to do a rock bed at the bottom of the swale where the yard is level. The area on the curve after the arrow. The yard is 2/3 of an acre & I already need help maintaining the beds that are there, so I've been concentrating on doing the beds I can see from inside the house. As I acquire more of my faves, there is the need to create more beds. I have a large Lespedeza thunbergi "Gibraltar out on the hill facing my deck. Ideally I would terrace the hill a bit. Instead, I have slowly planted into the hill. It is quite overwhelming. You can't see the trees we have put in, mainly on the borders to block the neighbors. I also like the idea of some water feature trickling down the hill, but it would require quite a lot of work to make it look like it was there when we arrived. The land was somewhat barren with no trees when we moved in because it was cornfields. I've been reluctant to have any trees near the house cause I love the way the light streams into the windows all day long & I love planting sun plants. It does get rather hot out there midday & the mosquitoes are like you've never seen(or maybe you have). It doesn't help that the swale water empties into a stream a few backyards away. In high mosquito season, it is so hot & buggy, I view the garden from indoors. Well enough of my dilemma, I need to figure out exactly how much time & money I want to spend on this backyard. I just don't want to do so much that it will take a team of people to maintain it. Just call me Muddling in Maryland. Rose

I have very invasive salvia uliginosa: narrow bright green leaves to 1 ft high, sky blue flowers on very long stems up to 4 ft high. (FYI, I like the plant so I don't mind it spreading, but it would be very hard to confine.) I also have a guaranitica that seems to be sending out runners; unlike the others, it dies back in winter (zone 9). Chamaedryoides is sending out runners in my garden -- it's got very grey leaves with sky blue flowers. Chiapensis is expanding (not sure if they are technically runners) but it has hot pink flowers.

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) 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) Cait

Perhaps your mystery farinacea was Henry Duelberg. Very distinct from most other forms. There are quite a few here: Salvia confertiflora - long, thin spikes 18 - 24 inches with coral orange button flowers and chocolate stems and calyxes Salvia mexicana `Ocampo' - tallest of deep purple mexicanas with 2 - 2.5 foot spikes Salvia mexicana `Tula' - humungous spikes usually 2.5 feet long and 4 - 6 inches wide with golden lime calyxes and indigo flowers Salvia madrensis - 2.5+ spikes with glossy yellow flowers and calyxes and stems covered with yellow hairs Salvia leucantha x rutilans `Anthony Parker' - possibly has the longest spikes (~3 feet)of deepest purple with indigo flowers Salvia involucrata Hadspen - about 18 to 24 inch spikes, lax habit, holds a lot more flowers than other puberula and involucrata forms. Salvia sessei (Sangre de Toro), Salvia regla `Jame' (Coahuila Mountain Sage), and Salvia regla from Hidalgo - treelike in habit with persistent colored calyxes, heavy weeping bloomers (orange). The Hidalgo form is the most compact and heaviest bloomer. S. dombeyi can take a treelike form and the heavy, pendulous blooms are used to drape the arms of the actor playing Jesus Christ in Andean Easter pageants. Salvia puberula `El Butano' - fattest spikes of that group Salvia karwinskii x puberula - longest spikes of that group Salvia guaranitica x `Purple Majesty' and Salvia guaranitica (Costa Rica) - 18+ inch spikes Salvia iodantha (Baton Rouge) - heaviest and densest spikes of the known iodanthas and possible relatives and hybrids. Ditto for S. purpurea `Lavender Lace' as compaired with the more commom form from Los Angeles County Arboretum.