Salvia ‘African Sky’: A tough dense upright shrub to 1 x 1m from Sth Africa with bright blue flowers for full sun.
Salvia ‘African Sky’: clips extremely well for hedges, balls and other shapes.
Flowers: are a mass of sky blue. Hoods are a slightly darker blue colour with the elongated bottom lobes having a wide white beeline extending from the throat to the middle of the lobe. Calyces are green with colouring on exposed sides. Lobes are ribbed and pointed. All of these beautiful flowers are held in numerous panicles above the stems. Flowering begins from spring through summer and well into autumn. Bee loves buzzing around these flowers.
Leaves: are bright green, broadly rounded, leathery and slightly lobed; the leaves occurring along the length of the stem in pairs.
As Salvia ‘African Sky’: clips very well, it is perfect as a small hedge to protect smaller plants in the foreground. It also makes a good bright green hedge in front of another darker hedge behind.
If not growing as a hedge, then grow this Salvia behind small shrubs or perennials, so the masses of fluffy blue flowers can billow out over the other plants.
The copious amount of flowers produced from this Salvia, really attracts bees, moths and other insects so that they are constantly buzzing over and through the flowers.
This Salvia is a really tough and hardy plant, to grow in full sun during the dry summer months making it ideal for those hot spots where nothing else will grow. Although it’s not fussy about the soil, it does benefit from having good drainage. A great plant for winter cold and frosty areas.
When pruning, either clip as a hedge or cut down to a good new shoot and clean out the shrub of old, dead or spindly twigs.
Propagated from tip cuttings which are easily taken most of the year.