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Common name: Mexican Bush Sage, Velvet sage
Botanical name: Salvia leucantha Family: Lamiaceae (mint family)
These soft fuzzy flowers top one of the most ornamental of all Salvias. A
sturdy grower with good form, Mexican Bush Sage not only stands out in the
garden, but attracts lovely hummingbirds as well.
Mexican bush sage is a bushy evergreen subshrub.
It grows in a loose,
spreading mound up to 2-4 ft tall and about the same width. The
leaves are lance shaped, like willow leaves, 1-5 in long,
puckery on top and white-wooly underneath. They are on petioles about an inch
long and arranged in opposite pairs along the squarish stems. The young, fast
growing stems are thick and conspicuously white-wooly. From autumn throughout
winter Mexican bush sage blooms with white flowers
1-2 long that extend from velvety purple or lavender-blue calyces.
The bicolored inflorescences are borne in very showy elongated arching
clusters 6-12 in length at the ends of erect, spreading stems. At
any given time, there will be just a few actual flowers per cluster, but lots
of pretty purple calyces. These inflorescences are profuse and extend way
beyond the foliage, making this one of the most attractive of the salvias.
Some cultivars of Mexican bush sage (for example, 'Midnight' and 'Purple
Velvet') have flowers the same color as the purple calyces.
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