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Salvia Hot lips

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  • Trudy72Trudy72 Posts: 1

    We inherited one of these plants when we bought our house. The plant is huge, spills over on to the lawn, has masses of flowers, smells lovely and is always covered in bees. It's a bit too big, need to trim it because the lawn is bare because the plant is so big and has clearly never been pruned. So I will way until Spring before pruning it.

    Would like to hear some advice on exactly how to take a cutting from this plant, when to do it, etc.

     

  • I have 3 of these plants and love them.  They are planted in the ground and have produced loads of flowers ever year which start off red and then by the end of summer are white. Bees love them. Never taken cuttings but will  try now. Usually trim it back in late summer, but never cut it right back. Will try that next spring as it is getting really large now for the spot it is in.

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,613

    image

     I'm planning on leaving this in the ground and taking cuttings to overwinter. How hardy is it?

  • Simply chop back as hard as u like in April every year - then say at end of July if too big trim back portions - this encourages new flowers - u can keep these compact by following this or if u leave they'll grow at least 5/6 foot round :0)
  • I know this post is getting old now but just in case anyone is interested, we live in Norfolk so plenty of Sun, but can be cold at night in the winter. Chop any salvia as hard as you like in spring, they do this in France where they grow very well, and our hotlips grows to about four foot, and about the same round and has the red/white flowers!
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    They also take very well as cuttings, when they start to get leggy just take more.

    The cuttings I took in September will be big bushes and flower well this coming year.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Planted my hotlips last year and it was perfect, flowered non stop! I pruned it right down in march as per label instructions when can I expect it to start getting some growth or have I killed it ??? I live in Herts and we do get very cold wet and windy winters.

  • WoodsieWoodsie Posts: 61

    I too chop this back really hard and have both the "Hotlips" variety as well as the normal red/pink variety.  Crushing the leaves gives you a lovely blackcurrant scent by the way!

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