Today I stopped by one of our big box home improvement stores and visited the declining stock in their gardening area. I’ve mentioned before about the good deals you can find there and so today I found a couple deals! While they are desperately cleaning out their summer and autumn wears to make room for Christmas trees, I picked up a couple of perennials to add to our gardens.
The first is one I think everyone should try somewhere in their landscape: Russian Sage. This variety is called Longin Russian Sage. It is supposed to be a more upright variety than other kinds of Perovskia atriplicifolia. Russian sage has silvery colored stems and feathery foliage highlighted by lavender colored blossoms that create a showy display in the summer. Planted in mass, Russian sage is very impressive and as a perennial it is very easy to grow. I put two others in this summer and each pruning cut brought forth vigorous new growth. I paid a whopping $1.00 each! One other note about Russian sage, it seeds very readily so you can either transplant the seedlings to another location or let them grow to form a mass of perennial power!
My other find was ‘East Friesland’ Salvia (Salvia nemerosa ‘). I picked up two of these salvias for $1.00 each. They should bloom next year with dark purple flower stalks and will stretch 18-24 inches tall. I put these two plants in my butterfly/birdbath garden where they should blend with the coneflowers and butterfly bush I have there. All of these plants were bought on the discount rack this season, including an ornamental grass called Miscanthus sinesis ‘zebrinus’ or Zebra grass which rests in the same bed.
Being perennials all four of these plants should overwinter well and bring forth great flowers next season!