As a follow up from our visit to the Salvia Display Garden and Lindi's own garden back in March, Lindi came and gave members a fascinating talk on the diversity of salvias.
Here is a copy of Lindi's notes on Salvias.
Salvias are one of the largest genera in the world with over 900 different species and almost as many cultivars and varities. Salvias are a diverse and exciting family of plants with a huge range of colours, from deep velvet purples and blues through rich reds, vibrant pinks, pale yellows, pure whites, brown, and even a black salvia. No garden should be without at least a few. In Fact there would be a salvia to suit every niche in a garden, whether it's in the sun or a dappled shady position. With a bit of planning, it is possible to have a salvia in flower in the garden all year round.
Given their good looks, ease of cultivation and drought tolerance it is surprising that salvias are not more widely grown.
Aromatic Salvias
Many salvias are aromatic with a high oil content in their leaves and have been used in medicine or for cooking all over the world. Those salvias with strongly scented leaves also seem to be unattractive to grazing animals like rabbits, possums and even kangaroos. Also, many leaf-eating and sap sucking insects are repelled by the scent, making the strongly scented salvias useful companion plants in the garden, as they confuse and repel pests.
You may like to grow some strongly scented salvias near the vegetable garden and under fruit trees, where they repel pests but also attract bees to help with pollination.
Food Sources
In their natural habitat salvias are important sources of nectar for birds, bees, butterflies and insects. In America salvias are essential to the tinyhummingbirds that feed on them. In Australia the same salvias attract honey-eaters and spinebills who delight in their nectar. My pineapple sage lures the beautifully marked eastern spinebills to my garden right through winter.Other local birds come to feed on salvia seeds and the insects attracted to the flowers. Blue and mauve flowered salvias also attract butterflies.
Large numbers of species and cultivars, and the ease of cross-pollination has given rise to a large number of new cultivars. The numbers are increasing all the time because of new cultivars and new discoveries in the wild.The diversity and breadth of this family has given rise to a large group of passionate and committed collectors all over the world.
The Salvia Study Group have tirelessly worked to create this delightful and fascinating Display Garden in Nobelius Heritage Park in Emerald. We are so lucky to be able to go there to see them growing and observe how they survive the summers without any extra watering and the cold winters, growing in a variety of different conditions. There is a salvia for every garden position and thanks to the continues effort to maintain this Display Garden, we can go and see how these salvias grow and perform before we put them into our gardens.
Find out morre: http://salvias.org.au
