New Exciting Salvia x 'Anthony Parker'

Learning new plants for the wildlife garden is always thrilling for me. Normally, I concentrate on natives, but I garden for wildlife and the late summer-fall native garden does not offer much for the hummingbirds I love so much. Additionally, my job as a Horticulturist and Garden Designer requires me to know about all plants that work in San Diego gardens. My landscape is a living laboratory where I grow new plants to learn more about them. Excited about a new Salvia for me. This choice plant is a chance cross between Salvia leucantha and Salvia elegans found by Frances Parker in her Beaufort, South Carolina garden, and named for her grandson, Anthony Parker.

I love salvias, and really love how fall-blooming salvias fill such a vital roll in supplying flowers when not much else is flowering. Salvia leucantha has always seemed a little insipid to me as the blooms have so much white. Salvia x 'Anthony Parker' takes care of that with deep lush purple blooms that are long-lasting. It is hardy from USDA Hardiness Zone 7-10. I will be able to tell you more about care instructions when I have grown it for awhile. Here is a photo by Adrian Kuys of Australia. Hummingbirds are especially thankful for fall-flowering plants in the garden. My goal is to provide a smorgasbord of edible plants, flowers, and fruit for as much of the year as possible. In my Zone 10b garden it doesn't freeze, so that smorgasbord is open pretty much all year long. Good to know they will be eating well this Thanksgiving!

 Salvia x 'Anthony Parker'                                                                                                                       Adrian Kuys