For years I dismissed Salvia farinacea, the mealy-cup sage, as a tacky common bedding annual, meant to be planted en mass. I like plants with a little more grace than the ones that are sold in the stores. I did try Salvia farinacea ‘Texas Violet’ from High Country Gardens one year, because it was described as having flowers scented of grapes, but it was a bit scraggly, the color was rather pale, with typical floury white calyces. It didn’t survive the winter. That’s the other reason I stayed away from Salvia farinacea. It is described as hardy only to zone 8 and since I’m in zone 7A, it would not be reliable. I didn’t want an annual. But after seeing some looking good in the neighborhood, I decided to grow some last year. The only ones that grew to the size I liked were from seed, so I grew a dozen or so plants from seed. To my surprise, every plant had a different character. Some were more sprawling, some had lighter or darker flowers. Some grew more bushy, and some grew more spindly. Some dropped both flowers and calyces after a short time, leaving a spotty raceme. Two plants stood out as being better than the others. One plant grew dark purple flowers with purple calyces and even the stems were purple, instead of the white calyces and green stems that are typical. The other was quite similar, but without the purple stems.

To my surprise, all of the plants survived the winter. I remembered which one was the one with purple stems, and took cuttings of it, and filled my pots with them. Although it’s not a perfect plant, it’s pretty much what I wanted. It’s like Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna’, but as a native New Mexican plant instead of a European one. It also blooms for much longer than ‘Caradonna’. It’s not a particularly unusual variation of Salvia farinacea, but it’s closer to what I wanted and not something that can be bought in stores. Maybe I’ll try more seeds and see if I can get something better yet.