Seeing Red

At long last the first flowers are opening on the Callistemon (bottle brush plant).



The first of nearly fifty flowers showing this year.

Having survived two winters the Salvia Hot Lips are putting on a good show



When they finished flowering last Autumn I cut them down to about one third their height.
Without pruning they could become too leggy with long bare hardwood stems.

More Hot Lips

Last November my Salvia Hot Lips were just small plug plants



They spent last Winter in the unheated greenhouse and were planted out in the Spring.
Today the three I planted against an East facing fence have grown to be lovely bushy plants



They have flowered continuously for over six months attracting bees and hover flies.
I would love to have photographed one of their visitors . I tried but it wouldn't co-operate.
It was a hovering fly of some sort. A type I had not seen before or since. At first I thought it was a bee fly but the markings were wrong for that. Its rear end had very distinct longitudinal black and white stripes. Not once did it land on anything but hovered all the time while feeding. I spent ages perusing various sites but could not find a photograph of anything which had remotely the same markings.

Hot Lips Revisited

Last April I wrote about the Salvia Hot Lips I had bought.
I was disappointed at the time that the flowers were completely red in colour.
It was pointed out to me it takes a while for the plants to mature and show their true colour.
Now they are looking as I expected:





Quite a startling combination of pure white and brilliant red.
All being well they will probably continue flowering right through the Summer.

Hot Lips

No. I'm not referring to the M*A*S*H character Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan.

Late last year I wrote about a plant I had seen locally which had small white flowers with bright red lips. I discovered it was Salvia Hot Lips. The six plug plants I ordered have been growing in the greenhouse over the winter and are just showing their first flowers. Disappointingly the ones I have seem to be pure red but are pretty none the less. I have read that the colour can change throughout the year so they may yet develop the white later on..

Two I have planted out, the rest will be put outside soon.





I would describe this bushy plant as half hardy as it can stay evergreen if the weather doesn't get too frosty. Mine have kept their leaves right through the Winter while in the unheated greenhouse.

Hot Lips

A month or so ago I first spotted a pretty plant on our early morning walk-about.
It has unusual small white flowers with bright red lips.
I've tried several times to photograph it without success.

After a search or two I found out what it is:
A Salvia with the common name 'Hot Lips'.
I thought to myself, 'That is a must have.'

A search of eBay brought up some plug plants from my favourite plug plant seller;

The original listing on eBay:

 

Today they arrived:

 

When we returned from our mid-afternoon walk I set about potting them up:



They are classed as half hardy but should be able to survive all but the harshest winters.
For now they are in the greenhouse while they get established.