July Plant of the Month

The ONE plant you need in your garden in July…

July is when the garden can start looking a bit tired. Spring’s big moment has been and gone, the lawn is crispy, and you need something that can bring the colour, keep the bees happy and not demand your attention. Enter Salvia 💜

Salvias are proper summer workhorses. They give you gorgeous upright flower spikes, they look brilliant in borders or pots, and they’re one of those plants that makes you look like you know what you’re doing with very little actual doing required…

✅ Flowers for months - from early summer into autumn if you keep deadheading
✅ Pollinator magnets 🐝
✅ Come in loads of colours - purples, blues, pinks, reds, whites and even two-tone varieties like ‘Hot Lips’
✅ Brilliant for adding vertical interest (Salvia nemorosa – image 1) or adding more structure (Salvia greggii e.g. ‘Hot Lips’ – image 5)
✅ Happy in pots, sunny borders, gravel gardens and mixed planting schemes
✅ Drought tolerant once established, so they’re great for hot, dry, sunny spots ☀️
✅ Low faff - deadhead or give them a light chop after the first flush and they’ll keep flowering for months
✅ Aromatic foliage which means even when they’re not in full flower they still earn their keep
✅ Super easy to take cuttings from giving you lots of plants for free!

Note though, not all Salvias are created equal when it comes to winter, so if you want something reliably hardy, look for varieties like Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’. If you fall for the more tender types (e.g. Salvia ‘Amistad’ – image 3 - which is often in the garden centres), you’ll either need to give them a sheltered spot, pop them in a pot so you can protect them when the weather turns, or be prepared to treat it like an annual plant which just serves you for one season.

If your July garden needs a bit of oomph, colour and wildlife-friendly joy without another high-maintenance diva to look after, Salvias are such a good choice.

As always, if you want to make changes to your garden but you don’t know where to start, drop me a message and I’ll happily point you in the right direction ✨