The combination of grey foliage and purple with a hint of lavender-rose coloured flowers makes Salvia ‘Santa Barbara’ both elegant and showy. ‘Santa Barbara’ is a selected form of Salvia leucantha, which is loved for its great flowers but often avoided by discerning gardeners because of a scruffy, rather woody growth habit. This problem has been overcome with ‘Santa Barbara’ which grows in a compact and very pleasing manner and is becoming regarded as an exceptional landscape plant.
It’s very easy to grow Salvia ‘Santa Barbara’ in full sun and well drained soils. As with other perennial Salvias, it tends to grow best where the soil isn’t too rich - generous feeding tends to produce good foliage but less flowers.
The flowering is lengthy, from mid to late summer. This makes it a great plant to mingle with other late flowering perennials and shrubs. As a companion plant for blue flowers it’s stunning. Have fun by combining it with blue flowered Salvias, such as ‘Aztec Blue’, and with the low growing, sun loving shrub Caryopteris ‘Forest Blue’ which is great for late summer colour. Perovskia ‘Blue Spires’, with lavender-like, soft blue flowers from mid summer to autumn and slender grey foliage, is an appealing perennial to include with such a planting.
Try ‘Santa Barbara’ too with the emerald green of Euphorbia ‘Kea’ and the taller growing, cream and green variegated Euphorbia ‘Silver Swan’.
It also looks amazing with pink Achilleas and pink Salvias.
With grey foliage plants is another way in which to use Salvia ‘Santa Barbara’, especially in sunny sites and well drained soils that these plants love. Combine it with lavenders which have attractive blue-grey foliage, such as ‘Violet Intrigue’, with lambs ears, Stachys byzantina, and the silver foliage and white daisy flowers of Leucanthemum ‘Sparkles’.
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Schemes & Themes
using Liddle Wonder Plants