From late May to August, biennial
clary sage (Salvia sclarea) sends
up pinky-mauve flower spikes
that are a magnet for bees
KEW C O L L E C T I O N S
A Word to
the wise
IN THE GARDENS
Salvias feature widely in Kew’s Plantasia summer festival, thanks to their
medicinal properties and aromatic foliage, but many also produce dramatic
and long-lasting flower displays. Kew’s Richard Wilford picks his favourites
Photos: Richard Wilford
‘
T
hey’re a bit boring, aren’t they?’ someone
once said to me when I mentioned using
salvias in a border. It took me by surprise, as
I thought of them as attractive and colourful
flowers, revelling in a sunny south- or west-facing border
and extending the bright shades of summer into the
autumn months. It can take a comment like that to make
you view something in a different way and I realised that
if you only associate salvias with the herb sage, then yes,
it might not be the most obvious colourful garden plant.
But there is a lot more to salvias than sage, and there’s
a lot more to sage than a culinary herb.
With more than 900 species spread across the
world, there’s no shortage of variety in the genus Salvia.
The half-hardy salvias grow well outside in summer but
need protection in winter. They’re simple to propagate
from cuttings, as long as you have somewhere frost-free
to overwinter them. There are also plenty of salvias that
are hardy enough to survive outside all year round and
look great in a garden bed or along the sides of a path.
A river of deep purple Salvia x sylvestris ‘Mainacht’
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‘Hot Lips’ lives up to its name,
with smiling, lipstick-red and
white flowers produced in
cheery abundance
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With its vibrant combination
of deep violet flowers
and bright green calyces,
Salvia mexicana ‘Limelight’
is a late-summer star
weaving through a border and blooming its heart out
in early summer, can hardly be called boring.
It’s the hardy salvias that are the best for planting
in dramatic drifts. Species such as Salvia x sylvestris,
S. nemorosa and majestic S. sclarea, which has theatrical
spires of flowers that reach well over a metre tall in one
year, make an impact early in the summer. It’s the less
hardy, New World species from North America and
Mexico that continue the flowering season into late
summer and autumn. Among these you’ll find the
most intense, eye-catching colours, such as magentapink S. involucrata and bright scarlet S. fulgens. The
delicate pink-and-white bi-coloured flowers of halfhardy S. x jamensis ‘Hot Lips’ are fascinating to look
at, while S. mexicana ‘Limelight’ produces rich violetblue flowers that contrast wonderfully with their
bright lime-green calyces.
There’s no doubt that salvias have plenty to
contribute to the summer garden. You can see them
at Kew in the Plant Family Beds and the wall border
alongside the Rock Garden, as well as in other parts
of the gardens at Kew and Wakehurst, where they’re
mixed with summer-flowering perennials. When the
peonies have finished blooming in Kew’s Peony
Garden, salvias are among the plants that take over
the display, looking particularly effective alongside
yellow phlomis, hardy geraniums and tall spires of
verbascums. On the Rock Garden itself you can see
various hardy species that do well in the free-draining
soil and sun, such as the Central Asian Salvia deserta,
North American S. arizonica and shrubby S. fruticosa
from the Mediterranean region.
There are six species of Salvia growing wild in the
UK, including wild clary, S. verbenaca, and the lovely
blue-flowered S. pratensis or meadow clary. The
common name clary is derived from ‘clear eye’ and
refers to the use in old herbal medicine of wild clary
seeds – when soaked in water they produce a thick
mucilage that was used to soothe and cleanse the eyes.
However, the salvia that is best known today, mainly
for its use in flavouring food, is common sage,
S. officinalis. Like Greek sage, S. fruticosa, it comes »
How to take salvia cuttings
From mid-summer onwards, choose a healthy, nonflowering shoot and cut off the tip to make a cutting
about 10 cm long. Make the cut just below the point
where the leaves join the stem. With a sharp knife,
remove all the leaves, apart from the top pair.
Insert several cuttings into a small pot of multi-purpose
compost mixed with vermiculite to improve drainage.
Keep them moist and cool and they should root within
a few weeks. Once rooted, pot them up and keep them
frost-free over winter, then plant out in late spring.
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Native
Texas and Mexico,
Is this atosalvia?????
Salvia greggii enjoys a sunny, welldrained site, as do its many attractive
cultivars, which come in shades of
red, pink, purple, yellow and white
Photos: Andrew McRobb / RBG Kew, Richard Wilford
Salvias that aren’t hardy enough to survive outside
over winter can be propagated from cuttings, and
then kept indoors over winter.
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Half-hardy Salvia involucrata
is perfect for tropical-style
plantings, flowering from
mid-summer into autumn
Plant Salvia x sylvestris in a dense
swathe for a stunning display of
swaying wands, up to 80 cm tall,
from early to mid-summer
Brew a pot of sage tea
Sage tea is said to improve digestion and ease
congestion and coughs. You will need:
30 g (½ oz) sage leaves
2 tablespoons sugar
Zest of one lemon
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
4 cups of water
Photos: Richard Wilford, Andrew McRobb / RBG Kew
Bring the water to the boil and simmer, add the rest
of the ingredients and steep for 20 minutes, stirring
occasionally. Strain out the sage leaves. You can
serve the tea hot, or chill it and serve with ice.
from the Mediterranean region and its healing properties
have been known for centuries. The name Salvia comes
from the Latin salvare, which means to save or heal.
This became corrupted to sauge in France and sawge
in old English, which eventually became sage.
In the Herball by John Gerard, published in 1597,
sage has an extensive list of properties, including being
‘...singular good for the head and braine; it quicketh the
senses and memory...’ and ‘It is likewise commended
against the spitting of blood, the cough, and paines of
the sides, and bitings of Serpents.’ Gerard also mentions
wholesome sage ale ‘being brewed as it should be, with
Sage, Scabious, Betony, Spikenard and Fennell seeds.’
Today, sage is still used as a herbal remedy, but
to a much lesser extent than in the past. Sage has
anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties,
and suggested uses include the treatment of cough
and cold symptoms. Clinical studies suggest sage might
also help to alleviate symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease
patients by improving memory and information
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processing. One old remedy that is certainly not such a
good idea is the smoking of sage leaves to cure asthma!
The obvious property of all salvias is their
aromatic foliage. The strong smell was used to disguise
unpleasant odours before sewerage systems had been
developed in towns and cities. Strewing herbs were
sweet-smelling plants scattered or strewn over the floor
so that their scent would be released as people walked
on them. Part of the newly replanted Queen’s Garden,
behind Kew Palace, is devoted to strewing herbs and
there you can find a range of scented plants. This garden
has been redeveloped for Kew’s Plantasia summer
festival and various sections are devoted to different
themes, including herbal medicines, remembered
remedies, and plants that are the basis of modern drugs.
Another name for the sunken part of this garden
is the ‘nosegay’ garden, meaning ‘to make the nose
happy’. A nosegay was a bunch or posy of scented
flowers and leaves that helped to keep terrible smells
at bay. In 17th-century London, nosegays were also
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used as protection from the plague, as it was thought
that the disease was carried by foul air. Sage was one
of the choice plants for such posies.
The properties of Salvia have been appreciated for
centuries, but the introduction of more exotic species
into cultivation is a more recent phenomenon. There
has never been a better time to bring salvias into your
garden, with a huge range of species and cultivars
available. There is another meaning of the word sage,
and that is someone profoundly wise or famed for their
wisdom. So, you would be wise to take another look at
these plants – they are beautiful, varied and very useful.
––
Richard Wilford is a collections manager at Kew
Save 15% on new Salvias guide during June
Find out more about choosing and growing
salvias with The Plant Lover’s Guide to Salvias
by John Whittlesey. It gives descriptions of
more than 150 species and varieties, with
photos of each, along with cultivation and
planting advice, flowering season, hardiness
rating, size and more. Published by Timber
Press in association with Kew Publishing,
this 218-page hardback is available now
in Kew’s shops and at shop.kew.org.
During June you can save 15 per cent on the RRP of £17.99 if you show
your copy of Kew magazine when purchasing any of The Plant Lover’s
Guides in Kew’s shops, or enter code PLG15 at shop.kew.org.
»» For more stunning salvia images, go to the Kew magazine app
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