If you're able to take cuttings @WAMS I would advise it. It might be a little late, but worth a try. I've found overwintering the So Cool series in the ground seems like a game of Russian roulette. One can die, but a plant right next door to it survives.
I meant to ask if you saw last night Gardeners' World @Fire ? Frances Tophill visited Great Comp garden and William Dyson's salvia nursery which is next door. Not too many blue/purple salvias apart from "Amistad", but lots of shots of various salvias and bees having a high old time
I did see it. Thanks @AnniD Nice to see Mr Dyson talking about his passiona for salvias. I did quite a lot of pause and reverse, as usual. I saw Sidalcea Candida which is new to me and I will probably try next year
I have high hopes for S. "Animo" which is a similar type to Amistad but shorter and more deep blue than purple, but I only got it this year so I don't know how it copes with winter yet. Likewise "Pink Amistad" (I like the sugar-mouse-pink flowers with the black calyces but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea). I've seen big fluffy bumblebees on both over the last couple of weeks.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Earlier in the summer the bees here seemed to like S. Lavender Dilly Dilly, although as the name suggests its the purply/lavender end of the range of blues rather than a true blue, and it's quite big (about 1m high and wide by this time of year, from a fairly hard mid-late spring prune). They've abandoned it now in favour of Caryopteris.
Lavender Dilly Dilly is a really good variety, for me it always looked nicer (and tidier) than Blue Note, which was a bit scratty looking with relatively sparse flowers. It has nice neat foliage with a pale sheen.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
It's not sprawly/spready like Nachtvlinder, more of a shrub shape.
Edit: here it is (with the end of the bench in shot for scale). It didn't get quite as big last summer, probably because the weather was overall hotter and drier, and some of the branches got a bit weighed down by the heavy rain that we had on Tuesday.
PS 'scuse the hosepipes! They're the bathwater syphoning ones (grey one hanging down in front of the kitchen window - I should set up a hook to route it to one side - and green one connected to it going off down the garden).
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
‘scratty looking with relatively sparse flowers’ is exactly how I would describe Blue Note too @Loxley. Mine always looks flattened, as if it has a cat using it as a regular snoozing spot!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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I've found overwintering the So Cool series in the ground seems like a game of Russian roulette.
One can die, but a plant right next door to it survives.
Frances Tophill visited Great Comp garden and William Dyson's salvia nursery which is next door.
Not too many blue/purple salvias apart from "Amistad", but lots of shots of various salvias and bees having a high old time