- Blooms
- Spring to frost
- Sun
- Sun to part sun
- Water
- Low to moderate
- Attracts
- Hummingbirds
If someone asks for one perennial that blooms for months, shrugs off heat, and reliably brings hummingbirds, the answer in Texas is usually salvia. The only hard part is choosing which one.
Salvia is a huge genus, and several members are ideally suited to Texas gardens. They share tubular flowers built for hummingbird beaks, aromatic foliage that deer usually avoid, and a long bloom season that stretches from spring to first frost.
Four worth knowing
Autumn sage (Salvia greggii) is the workhorse. A compact shrubby perennial two to three feet tall, native to West Texas, available in red, coral, pink, white, and purple. It blooms spring through fall with a rest in peak heat and is exceptionally drought tolerant.
Mealy blue sage (Salvia farinacea) sends up violet-blue spikes on a tidy plant, tolerates clay better than most, and is native across much of the state. It is the blue in many roadside plantings.
Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) saves its show for fall, producing velvety purple and white spikes just as the garden needs a lift. It gets large, so give it four feet.
Tropical sage (Salvia coccinea) is a self-seeding annual or short-lived perennial with brilliant red flowers that tolerates more shade than the rest, useful under trees.
Growing them
Most salvias want full sun to light afternoon shade and, above all, drainage. In heavy clay, plant slightly high or in a raised bed. Water to establish through the first summer, then reduce. These plants perform better lean than pampered, and heavy fertilizer produces floppy growth and fewer flowers.
Deadheading or shearing spent spikes by about a third keeps the cycle going. Autumn sage in particular responds to a midsummer trim with a strong fall flush. Cut perennials back hard in late winter, before new growth starts, to keep them from going woody and bare at the base.
Planting for hummingbirds
Hummingbirds notice groups, not single plants. Three or five of the same salvia together are far more effective than one of each color scattered around. Red and coral draw the most attention, though hummingbirds work every color once they find the patch.
Stagger your choices so something is always blooming: greggii and farinacea through spring and summer, leucantha taking over in fall as migration peaks. Add a shallow water source and skip broad-spectrum insecticides, since hummingbirds eat small insects as well as nectar.
Do this once and the birds tend to return to the same yard year after year. Few landscaping decisions pay back so visibly.
Deer and other pressure
Salvias are among the more deer-resistant flowering perennials, thanks to aromatic foliage that browsing animals generally avoid. Resistant is not the same as immune, and a hungry deer herd in a dry year will sample most things. Still, in Hill Country yards where deer pressure rules out half the nursery, salvia remains a dependable source of color.
Propagation
Autumn sage roots easily from softwood cuttings taken in spring or early summer, and tropical sage self-seeds freely once established. This makes filling a large bed inexpensive. Take a few cuttings from a plant you already like, and within a season you can plant the drifts of three or five that hummingbirds respond to.