Salvia sonomensis Mrs. Beard

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Description

This Salvia sonomensis is low growing with a nice blue flower. Mrs. Beard appears to be a stable hybrid of creeping sage and black sage. Straight species can make you look brilliant for a year or more, then, sometimes, they vaporize.. Mrs. Beard allows you to look smart longer. A low growing, dark green sage that grows to three or four feet across and a foot tall. Useful as the low transition between Arctostaphylos or Ceanothus shrubs and a walkway. Use with Desert mallows to make a WOW in front of Fremontias or larger Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus. Betsy Clebsch in her book "The new book of salvias: sages for every garden" lists the origin as a hybrid in UC Berkley's Botanic Garden discovered by Helen Beard in 1965. I think it's interesting that it was called Mrs. Beard instead of Helen Beard. A sign of the times? Here's a native sage page where you can see all the Salvias of California.