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Salvia brandegei 'Pacific Blue' (Santa Rosa Island Sage) - Salvia brandegei comes from the Channel Islands off the California Coast and northern Baja California. It is a vigorous heavily branched shrub that can grow 4 to 6 feet in height. The narrow dark green leaves have a wrinkled texture on top and are finely covered with white hairs underneath. The flowers, forming on tiered whorls, are typically a light lavender color but this selection from the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens has dark lavender blue flowers.
Plant in full sun in a fairly well-draining soil and give little irrigation; it is very drought tolerant once established. Salvia brandegei tolerates a wide range of soils and is a durable long-lived plant in the garden. It is cold hardy to at least 15° F (Las Pilitas Nursery notes that the species can tolerate temperatures down to 0° F). To keep a dense and a more attractive plant, cut back in the winter by about a third or more when young - once mature with woody stems, only tip prune.
Salvia brandegei 'Pacific Blue' was introduced by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in 2004 and was selected from self-sowed seedlings discovered in the garden near a Salvia brandegei collected from Santa Rosa Island. It is possibly a hybrid with another native salvia; Carol Bornstein, then Director of Horticulture and the living collection at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden has speculated that if it hybridized the other parent might be Salvia munzii. What ever its parentage, this plant was very nice but it unfortunately did not sell well for us and we discontinued production in 2013.
More information on this plant can be found on the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden's Salvia brandegei 'Pacific Blue' Page.
This information about Salvia brandegeei 'Pacific Blue' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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