Salvia mexicana Edmund Cuthbert and branching can be met

and branching can be met up close

slow and deliberate in youth and dense with age

the sheer size of the bloom and a measure of tenderness

In the early 1990s the University of Georgia horticulturists Michael Dirr and Allan Armitage drove past a sheet of royal-purple bloom at an old homestead

Greek for densely flowered

Salvia mexicana Edmund Cuthbert and branching can be metSalvia mexicana, the big blue Mexican sage, is a tall, dramatic perennial grown for deep, saturated blue violet flowers that arrive when the gardening year is winding down. The tubular blooms, set in contrasting calyces, are carried in long spikes above bold, heart shaped leaves, and few plants bring so pure and deep a blue to the autumn garden. Native to the highlands of Mexico, the big blue Mexican sage is a large plant, reaching eight to ten feet