Salvia Victoria Blue

The indigo backbone of the summer border. Salvia Victoria Blue is an RHS Award of Garden Merit variety that produces multiple upright stems topped with dense spikes of vivid indigo-blue flowers with a unique silvery ‘mealy’ dusting on the stems and calyces — a quality that gives it a luminous, almost frosted appearance in the border.

A high-nectar pollinator star that bees and butterflies find irresistible, it provides vertical structure and intense colour from midsummer through to autumn. Pinch out the growing tips at 10cm for a bushier, more floriferous plant.

• Salvia farinacea 'Victoria Blue' — RHS Award of Garden Merit, Half-Hardy Annual (H3)
• Height: 45–50cm | Flowers: July–October
• Sow indoors February–April at 20–24°C; surface sow
• Full sun; light, well-drained soil
• Pinch tips at 10cm for bushier growth
• Outstanding pollinator plant — bees and butterflies

Grow it with Rudbeckia Marmalade and Cosmos Purity for a late-summer border of indigo, gold, and white that hums with life.