Our September meeting welcomed a new speaker to the garden club in Mark Mason from Sudbury. Mark gave a very entertaining, slide free, presentation of the value of salvias in our 21st century gardens. Mark has been involved in horticulture for many decades and his deep knowledge of salvias shone through to the packed audience.
Mark started his presentation discussing where salvias originated (many from Mexico and South America) and how they became a garden staple over the last 30 years. For a long time most people had thought that salvias were the rather gaudy, small, red plants commonly used in bedding schemes. However, a chance find in Mexico in the 1990’s of the ‘Hot-lips’ variety of salvia, saw the birth and proliferation of modern salvia varieties that populate many of today’s gardens. A gentleman called Robin Middleton was responsible for the popularity of the modern salvias seen in UK gardens of today and although now deceased his website can still be visited and is very informative on which species work well in UK gardens (http://www.robinssalvias.com/index.html).
Mark showed how to plant and care for salvias and how to propagate them to produce new plants for the following year. While not all salvia are hardy many are and will continue flowering well into autumn, giving months of colour and structure in your garden. Salvias have few pests and grow very well in pots and tubs. They tolerate most types of compost and can be kept in shape by a light trim in Autumn and more major cutting back in Spring, so you get flowers through summer and autumn. Mark talked about the many different varieties and their level of hardiness. After a lively Q&A there was a lot of interest in the plants Mark had brought for sale.