May 2021

Each month, we share one of our very favorite plants that is bring life to our landscapes during that month. This May, we have chosen salvia ‘May Night’ (Salvia x sylvestris ‘May Night’).  It provides a gorgeous pop of color and also adds a more upright shape than many other flowers.

At this time of the year, when days are getting longer and we’re having plenty of warm days and still a few chilly nights, we get so anxious for our perennials to come up. Do you do the same? This salvia has been up for quite a while now in our North Carolina climate and it has been showing off its indigo blooms for several weeks and may even keep blooming through the entire summer! Meanwhile, our coneflower, which we also love… is still just barely poking out of the ground and we’re getting impatient to see those gorgeous blooms! (That makes us love the May Night Salvia even more!)

This plant is drought-tolerant and heat-tolerant which is super important for us in the southeast. A really hot summer afternoon can fry tender plants in a heartbeat! Since it’s drought tolerant, it’s a great filler or focal point for a mixed container, depending on the size of your container. Drought-tolerant plants are great for containers since they won’t weeny out if you miss a day of watering. 

We’ve even experienced this plant acting semi-hardy in our zone 7b growing region. Where we installed this plant for a client in the fall (it had blooms then too!), it never quite died all the way to the ground like a true perennial. There was a substantial amount of leaves remaining above the soil surface through the entire winter. Yes, they got a little beaten up and became a little drab but we didn’t have to wonder where they were this spring since the leaves were still there. They simply greened up and put out new leaves and began flowering! Seriously, couldn’t ask for much more. Here’s a couple photos from that installation where you can see the blooms showing off before they were even planted!

Take a look at the growing requirements and characteristics of this awesome plant:

Sunlight: Full sun

Soil: Well-drained, average soil

Water: Drought tolerant once established, water once a week in prolonged drought

Maintenance: Cut back spent flowers to encourage continued blooming

Hardiness Zones: 4-9

Bloom Time: Early to mid-summer

Size: 18-24” tall and wide

Landscape Uses: Great for cut flowers, containers, and borders

To see our other featured plants throughout the months, go here!