New Nursery Names
We have also recently noticed that some large Nurseries are not recognising well established Salvia species or have the habit of placing Cultivar names on the end of species to help with the marketing of that particular Salvia.
Balls Australia have for some time not recognised the ‘ greggii‘ group of Salvias, instead they have incorporated all of the ‘greggii’s under the banner of their broad ‘Navajo ‘ Assorted range of Salvias.
Now it seems that Balls Aust. are actually naming individual ‘greggii’s in the ‘Navajo’ range. This is what you might find in your Bunnings store or your local nursery:
S. Navajo ‘White’ = S. greggii ‘Alba’
S. Navajo ‘Rose’ = S. greggii ‘Raspberry Royale’
S. Navajo ‘Pink’ = S. greggii ‘Sierra Pink’ (PGA)
The original Navajo series were: S. ‘Navajo Red’, S.’ Navajo Cream’, and S.’ Navajo Purple’
Haars Aust. were also marketing some Salvias a few years ago under their banner of “Garden Jewels”. . It was here we found a Salvia that Under this banner of Garden Jewels is a beautiful new mauve Salvia ( unnamed) which we named S. ‘Navajo Dusky Mauve’. It turns out , that this lovely mauve Salvia is actually one of the ‘Mesa Range’, promoted by ‘Natural Selections’- ‘Mesa Azure’.
Because this Salvia was unnamed in Bunnings stores in Qld, Someone found it and called it ‘Mrs Bucket, but this Salvia is
‘Mesa Azure’
Many of these greggii/ microphylla small shrubs can be fairly nondescript, except they look similar to other microphylla varieties already available. So, beware of new cultivar names, observe what you have in your garden, and check your labels.
We have found another Purple Salvia under the banner of Garden Jewels – a seedling from ‘Mesa Azure’. This will be ‘Purple Jewel’, a beautiful dark purple, compact Salvia, approx 40-60cm.
