Salvia clevelandii Winifred Gilman Cleveland Sage

Identification

Description

Salvia clevelandii Winnifred Gilman" is an evergreen shrub with flowers lavender to blue. This form of Cleveland sage that is native to dry slopes San Diego County (we would guess it has a little  Salvia munzii in it, but as it came from Strybing Arboretum it could have a little of something else, or the form found in the wild had a little munzii in it.). It likes sun and perfect drainage. The gray-green leaves have intense fragrance. All the Salvias are great hummingbird plants. Cold tolerant to about 10 deg. f.. It has managed to survive lower temperatures here but I had it against a 3' rock wall facing south situated in such a way that the cold flowed over it. Winnifred Gilman flowers are stunning. The interesting note is, at least here, the only native pollenators seem to be young  hummingbirds.
Do not put it under your bedroom window unless you really love the smell of the wild west (or a herb garden according to your taste). No accounting for tastes, one customer complained that "that plant smelled so BAD' and another who comes by occasionally to beg for a stem or two for the cab of his truck cause it made the truck smell real good'. The Cleveland sage fragrance carries for 20-50' on a warm night.
This sage is native in areas of low rainfall and has survived here on four inches of rainfall. It is stable in sand or gravel, fair in loam, unstable in clay (if it gets any summer water at all). If you live in an area of rainfall greater than 35 inches find a spot of pure sandy gravel. 'Winnifred Gilman' is a nice form of Cleveland Sage that seems to be a little more garden and frost tolerant. Flower color and scent may even be more pronounced. (It is not as tough as straight species in places like desert washes tough.)
For years we had this listed as Winifred Gilman. It was sold to us 30+ years ago as Winifred Gilman, Betsy Clebsch apparently traced the real name, Winnifred, back to a volunteer at Strybing Arboretum. It is SO hard to change names in our data base, that for the moment, this note will have to do. (The trade has this species mislabeled many times. Sometimes a hybrid called 'Allen Chickering' is labeled as this and sometimes this is labeled as 'Allen Chickering'.)
If you're after the flowers but have clay or heavy frosts see Salvia clevelandii X 'Pozo Blue'
We also grow other Clevelandii sages, Deer Springs, has a larger flower and grayer foliage, comes from the North Escondido area,
Salvia clevelandii, Alpine,  holds the flowers for months and is used by tons of native species, comes from Alpine in San Diego County.

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