Hi moved into my new house at the end of last year so all the plants the previous owner left were already cut down so I’m just wondering does anybody know what this plant is and how far do I trim it down and what time of year do I do it? 🙂
by Burritos-tail
11 Comments
It’s a Salvia Greggii also known as Hot Lips. You can give them a prune anytime as they regrow quite well. I’d leave it until there are no more flowers as the bees love them.
You can prune relatively hard …about half would be fine.
That’s a salvia. Looks like one of the “lips” varieties, possibly hot lips. I cut mine back in late winter before they start to produce new spring growth.
It’s a Salvia cultivar called Hotlips, I think. They flower quite well into the autumn. I’m no expert in how to treat them properly though. Mine went very woody then died in a bad winter!
Salvia hot lips, I have the pink, red and purple varieties in my garden and love them.
I actually leave mine as is and give a good prune in spring.
I also trim back to make them look tidy throughout the summer and propagate the cuttings as they’re very easy to do. Just put into water and they’ll root. That gives you more to share with friends & family or to place in other areas around your garden
Many plants are not fussy when you prune them and some are prima donnas. However, a good rule of thumb is to never prune anything that is flowering (just after is usually ideal) and never remove more than two thirds of the leaves.
This is a salvia hot lips they are pretty independent, very drought tolerant. I generally leave mine alone and don’t even water it. This year I tried the Chelsea chop (cutting it right back in May). I don’t think I’ll bother again it hasn’t come back and started flowering again.
The great thing about Hot Lips is that it changes colour according to the season – red in midsummer, white when the weather gets cooler, red and white in between!
Yeah salvia, as the others said. Amazing for wildlife, and when it comes to pruning you could nuke the site from orbit and it would still grow back, so a great plant to have for anyone new to gardening. Once the flowers have finished late summer, give it a trim to keep it tidy, but otherwise, enjoy and let it work its magic!
A non-native plant – frankly you belong in prison for having it. You’ll need to get rid of it but you can’t use any chemicals or anything that will disturb the soil so all you can do is challenge it to a game of riddles. You win – it goes – it wins – you go.
Then once it is gone you can plant some lovely ivy or a dandelion.
(Lovely salvia, hot lips I think? – tough as nails. You can cut it back as hard as you like in the autumn and it will bounce back).
We cut ours back in the winter when it is dormant, it comes back strongly. Great for bees, it will flower right up to the first hard frosts.
Is this the salvia whose leaves you can use for a medicinal tea?