PlantFiles: Hummingbird Sage, Texas Sage, Scarlet Sage
Salvia coccinea

This is a great hummer plant, but it is very invasive in south Texas. It comes up everywhere including cracks in the drive way. I pull the stuff up all the time and throw it away. The pink and white Salvia Coccinias are not as invasive. Keep it under control if you live in a hot climate or throw it out in a field and let it go.

This plant needs part shade to shade in my location. Jowever, with too much shade, it does not bloom profusely. It needs spaced from 1 foot to 2 feet apart. It is a native plant that can be found growing in woodlands and hilly slopes in the Edwards Plateau Region of Texas as well as other poarts of east and south Texas. I have found that it perforns better in poorer drier soil; otherwise, it becomes leggy, the leaves become speckled with light green spots and the blooms are fewer. It has a high deer resistance due to the pumgent odor of its leaves. It is a short lived perennial that reeed profusely. To encourage fullness, prune it removing the top half at the end of May. After the first frost has browned its leaves or in mid-winter, cut it to about 3" from the ground. It is one of my best butterfly attractors.

Grows quickly and has attractive red blooms. I initially planted a mass of them after reading about their ability to attract hummingbirds. Interestingly enough, while I did notice the resident hummingbirds checking the red blooms out ever so briefly, they seemed to quickly bypass them in favor of dining on the red monarda not far away.

However I was quite pleasantly surprised when I saw that these salvia had attracted the first tiger swallowtail I've seen in my garden! There would be one or two tiger swallowtails at the "lady in red" salvia patch daily during the summer and they'd stay for seemingly hours. Bees also tended to visit in frequency.

Beautiful, easy to grow and aromatic (minty). Self-seeds reliably. Hummers and butterflies love it. Blooms early.

Carefree native (Louisiana) often found growing in harsh environments like roadsides, but frequently seen also in woodland and marsh edges. A favorite of hummingbirds.

I've grown S. coccinea for more than ten years. The one I have is brilliant red, and proved tougher than the pink form. I just bought the white form, and so far it is doing great, but the jury's still out for it.

Texas sage is tough and tolerant. Here in west central Florida it is perennial, and reliably so. At my old place, I left a plant that was at least nine years old, growing happily in partial shade (afternoon sun) under a Valencia orange tree.

I didn't have to try to pot one to bring to the new place, I knew a seedling would come up in a pot of something else. One less pot to move was GOOD. I found three, and they were very welcome. The seedlings are easy to pull where you don't want them, and easy to move to where you do. They much prefer good drainage and better dirt, and grow best in six hours of direct sun.

If you like red, and you like red during all warm months, this is a good plant to have. It is one of about a dozen plants I wouldn't garden without.

This plant is well-suited for xeriscaping being drought-tolerant. The natural form has an intense red blossom which hummingbirds and butterflies love. It is very striking when planted in large groupings. It is considered a short-lived perennial and will reseed itself. Pruning of the spent flowers will promote flowering.

It is easy to grow, reseeds, and blooms from July until frost.

Approximately 18" X 18". Reseeding tender perennial. May be sheared to keep shorter. Very easy to grow. In Texas, we usually treat it as an annual.

Nice flowering color.