Salvia koyamae Bob McCartney evergreen kind grown for tidy

evergreen kind grown for tidy structure rather than height

give 'Rubrum' room and a backdrop

often flushed pink in cool weather

the shrub shrugs off heat

Salvia koyamae Bob McCartney evergreen kind grown for tidyHere is a salvia that wants what salvias are not supposed to want. Most of the genus comes from sunbaked Mediterranean hillsides, dry Mexican mountains, and dusty California chaparral, so that the very word Salvia is shorthand for full sun, gravelly soil, and a watering regime closer to neglect than care. Salvia koyamae, endemic to the cool wooded slopes of Honshu in Japan, breaks every rule, asking instead for shade, moist humus rich woodland duff,