Salvia sonomensis Mrs. Beard flower spike.
Salvia somonensis, Mrs. Beard sage
Salvia sonomensis Mrs. Beard draping over a rock wall.
Salvia sonomensis Mrs. Beard flowers
Salvia sonomensis, Mrs. Beard with blue flower and green foliage.
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.