Description
Botanical Name: Salvia coccinea
Common Name: Tropical Sage Red, Scarlet Sage, Red Salvia, Blood Sage, Scarlet Salvia, Indian Fire
Description: This Florida native saliva is a blooming machine that brings all the pollinators to the garden. It is a versatile perennial wildflower and a steadfast addition to any wildflower garden. No pollinator can resist its bright red flowers, but it is particularly attractive to bees, large butterflies, hummingbirds, nut-hatches, and warblers. It typically blooms in late spring, summer, and fall, but can bloom year-round in many parts of the state. It occurs naturally in hammocks, woodlands and disturbed sites. It does like to reseed itself. The babies are easy to pull up, but if you want to control the reseeding simply deadhead on a regular basis. During very cold winters I’ve had the mother plants die completely, but new seedlings pop up in the Spring. It quickly grows to 2-4′ tall x 1-2′ wide in sun to part sun areas. I’ve grown them in part shade areas with no problems, but too much shade definitely limits the bloom production. Tropical sage is highly adaptable to a variety of conditions. Use it in a mixed wildflower bed or an as accent by itself. It’s absolutely stunning planted in large groupings. Likes acidic, sandy soil. It does tend to get leggy, so give it a haircut once or twice a year. Trust me, it will look much better with a trim. Planting it behind shorter plants also helps to hide its legginess. Is moderately drought tolerant after becoming established, but does look best with supplemental water during drought times.
This is NOT the low-growing, non-native, annual bedding plant Salvia splendens.
Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water. Moderately tolerant of salty wind and may get some salt spray.
This plant in 1-gallon containers is 8-12″ tall.
Plant Lore: It has pungent foliage that makes it fairly deer resistant. Even though the flowers are mainly red, sometimes the plants will send out flowers that are a pinky/coral color.
Florida Hardiness Zones 8 – 11 / East Gulf Coastal Plain Ecoregion
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