Salvia ‘Fairy Queen’

One special crop we have this summer is ‘Fairy Queen’, a new salvia from Fleuroselect. This is a cultivar similar to the Victoria types that you’ve planted before, but this one has a large white dot on the lip and a slightly taller stance at 18 inches. You’ll also find that the bloom is beefier.

So far, we are very impressed with this crop. Here is a photo of an 1801 Landscape tray, and the plant does a good job of filling it out. Right now our crop features nice tight blooms—the color is just coming on.

Up close you can see that the lip of the flower has a large white dot, so it looks like a bi-color. From a distance, the dot merges with the dark blue to create a light blue hue across the landscape. Pointillist paintings that hang in a museum create this illusion and now we can, too. 

The species, farinacea, is native to Texas and Mexico, so ‘Fairy Queen’ takes the heat well, is drought-tolerant, and has no real pests or diseases to speak of. It is also a source of nectar for butterflies and hummingbirds, and its long purple stems look dramatic in cut flower vases.

Salvias are great for adding vivid color with a sense of motion in the hot summer months. Consistent bloomers all summer long, they don’t take a break in the middle of the color season like some other crops do. Plus they maintain themselves in the bed, because spent flowers dry up to paper-thin wisps that blow away in the wind.