VIRIDIS

viridis-pink VIRIDIS,.

This salvia was one of the first to be grown in Australia.   It is a self seeding annual and not very easy to come by locally these days.   The most beautiful examples I have seen were generally in the United States and I often yearn to grow the pink and purple viridis successfully.

It is fascinating that the flower is so tiny you have to look for it.  The bract around the flower is the colourful bit.

I think it is best to sow at the end of summer so it has winter to make a substantial plant ready to bloom in spring and summer.   I don’t think it is frost tender at all.  Sowing it in summer will have it trying to flower rather than putting on growth to support a lot of blooms.

Unfortunately the name of this salvia has been varied over the years,  mainly with horminum,  but occasionally it also gets sclarea put on it.   A large wholesale nursery in Victoria was labelling S. sinaloensis as viridis which would be very confusing.

Because it is an annual I don’t usually sell this plant.