Salvia, Baby Sage, Blackcurrant Sage, Delta Sage, Graham's Sage, Little Leaf Sage 'Hot Lips'

I planted some "microphylla red" salvias, not the "hot lips" but I think probably virtually the same plant except all red flowers.
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I planted them in the spring of 2016 in an area I was planting to be a hummingbird garden. I am in Portland, OR metro area, zone 8.

They grew vigorously in the summer, they looked great, and they were probably the most favorite flower of the hummingbirds.

But now in spring of 2017 they do not show much sign of life. Only a few remaining leaves on the existing branches, and no new growth coming up out of the ground.

I have had this same problem with two other salvias- Nuevo Leon and Indigo Spires. The nursery I got the Indigo Spires at said some years they don't survive the winter, so that one I was not surprised about. But I thought the microphylla and the Nuevo Leon were hardy enough to survive the winters here.

You do see quite a bit inconsistency in what zone different nurseries claim these are good to. But they all say these are good to at least zone 8 and most plants rated to zone 8 have done just fine for me. But these seem to be less cold hardy than one might think.

I have a couple Salvias that are rated a lot more cold hardy that seem to be coming up fine- Cardonna and East Friesland. However, I find the Microphyllas and Nuevo Leons more attractive. But they don't appear to be able to handle our climate.

Autumn Sages (I have 'pink' and 'hot lips') are one of my most favorite plants to grow here in the hot state of Texas. They thrive on lit...Read Moretle or no water but during the daily hottest days of summer (if receiving full sun), they need some water every one to two weeks in the evenings, allowing the water to not evaporate overnight. Otherwise, the leaves will start to lose its green color which is a sign of needing some water. When pruning, it's recommended to cut the stems at a straight cut instead of angle in which I've discovered this prune method for this type of plant. They're super sensitive to getting their stems broken by accident or the leaves will wilt and start dying. When it happens, prune them properly and they'll be fine. This is a lovely plant to enjoy in your garden once you know how to handle them well.

Salvia "Hot Lips" is one of my favourite sages and in some years its hardy here in Innsbruck/Tyrol... which I never thought woul be possible

This plant has been blooming for me since I planted it in June; since then, it's grown over 10 times the size that got it.
It at...Read Moretracts hummingbirds. Too bad my neighbors all have lawns and barely any wildlife friendly plants otherwise there would be a lot more hummingbirds.

My one plant is about 2 years old now and is _covered_ in red, white, and red-and-white flowers. I trimmed it back about a month ago and ...Read Moreit started flowering even more. There's almost always at least one hummingbird hovering around it. It's near a north facing wall, so gets no sun in the winter but is blasted by the worst of the valley summer heat, but it doesn't seem to mind, and it can go months without watering. Highly recommend for my zone.

Star performer for me. I planted it under a London Plane tree. Sun or shade, it flowers prolificly. It can tolerate drought but looks muc...Read Moreh better with periodic water. Flower factory and hummingbird diner. Two years running I've had hummingbirds nest in the hedge next to the sage. When it heats up it flowers less then bursts back into bloom in Fall.

Makes huge thick weed smothering blanket. Conserves soil moisture for the tree it's growing under.

I am planting more of them this year.

I live in western Oregon and when we moved into the house Hot Lips was in the garden. We enjoyed it very much for a few years and then on...Read Moree spring it was dead. We had no idea the name or plant type and searched for the last couple years online and at the stores. I tried describing it on online forums and no one came up with this plant. Today I found one at the local store. Now I know the name and if it should die back again I can replace it. We had had a harder winter than normal the year it died. We are zone 8ish. The bees just loved it and we are working hard to encourage the pollinators around us to be happy with all the bee die-offs and such so it is an important addition to our garden.

This plant grows like wildfire. I never water it, and apparently the little rain we get here is enough. Hummingbirds are always around ...Read Morethis plant. We give it a hard trim in the winter.

Hot lips salvia is one of the most beautiful plants in my gardens. It is evergreen in my area - 8a. I had to move it a couple of times ...Read Morebecause it grew larger than the tag said. Each time I moved it, I cut it back and it came back more beautiful than before. So I now just make a practice of cutting it back to about 1-1/2 feet in early spring. It is full, lush and gorgeous. Grows to about 3-1/2 to 4 ft. tall and wide for me. Hummers love it and everyone who visits my gardens fall in love with it.

I got this plant last year and it bloomed great! This year the leaves are coming out but I wonder if I should have pruned the tops of th...Read Moree branches? They are bare and it doesn't look like leaves will be forming so it seems the tops are dead. Is it too late to cut the tops of the branches where there are not leaves? It is now the beginning of May and I don't see any flowers coming yet? I am in Zone 8b Sumner WA

Have had this flower for at least 6 years now around my mailbox here in zone 7b & it really seems to do better when it's ignored. There...Read More are years that it comes back with loads of buds, & years that it does nominally well, BUT IT ALWAYS PUT ON A PRETTY GOOD SHOW. I get white flowers, red flowers & the trademark red & white mix & it seems to thrive on hot days.

This is my favorite plant in my whole yard. I have 11 of them, and not only have they thrived on our 115 degrees in the summer and 45 inc...Read Morehes of rain in the winter, they've done well in full sun areas, heavy shade areas (I planted Vinca in that corner and it died!), and everything in between, all on a xeric water regimen plus a nasty claypan!

I purchased a hot lips salvia last summer and love it! I live in Zone 5 so wasn't sure how the plant would do, but was pleasantly surpri...Read Moresed when it grew to about 3 foot tall and consistently bloomed until early October when I pruned it and dug it up to bring inside for the winter. I currently have it waiting patiently for spring in my basement with sunlight coming in through a south window. It has new growth and is ready to bloom again! I would absolutely recommend this plant for other gardeners in Nebraska! It is beautiful.

What can I say? This plant loves to be forgotten. I discovered this by accident when my sprinkler system malfunctioned while were were ...Read Moreon vacation, so for 2 weeks in the heat of a dry Georgia summer, it got no water. When I came back, everything else in that flower bed was nearly dead, except this plant. It was not only surviving, it was THRIVING! I've never cut mine back. Here in zone 8, it still had a few blossoms going at Christmas time. I have not had any luck with propogation from cuttings. Dividing the root ball seems to be the only way to go for me.

I have a variety of different colored salvias including this one in my garden. They add beautiful color, butterflies, bees and hummingbi...Read Morerds love them (very important to me) once established they require low water and maintenance. I do prune regularly (but easy too) to keep them in shape and I think it encourages blooming. Also they don't require "fancy" soil and I personally don't fertilize even though that might be good. Sun to part/shade but the more sun the better. A favorite for me!

I grew this plant for several years and found it unattractive most of the time. I loved the blooms, which changed color depending on hea...Read Moret levels. However, no matter how I cut the plant back, it consisted mainly of stems with leaves clustered at the end of its woody stems. All you really saw was woody stems with a few blooms. I finally gave up on it.

I have an established (4 year old) 'Hot Lips' salvia in the NW area of my garden in the Texas Hill Country. This past winter (2011), we h...Read Moread abnormally low and extended, dry hard freezes of 9 degrees, with windchills into the (minus) -2 degrees. This plant suffered cold damage but did not die back to the ground, and is coming back very nicely now.

One note of caution, this plant spreads! It puts out underground runners in an attempt to takeover a large area of the garden. I have been using the new clumps as passalong plants. I also add that I have had the occasional solid white and solid red bloom on this plant, as well as the bicolor 'hot lips' red and white. Intense heat doesn't faze it.

Anyone have prunning tips for the Hot Lips? My hedge grew profusely this year but now, in winter about half of the upper section has die...Read Mored back pretty far. How far shoudl I cut it back if at all and when?

I haven't seen this plant since I moved here from Texas in 1994. So I was excited when I was given 8 of these plants in April. The truc...Read Morek they had been on froze overnight. The store had thrown them away because they looked dead. A friend that worked there "rescued" them and brought them to me. I planted them, cut the dead branches back to the ground and watered them. Within 2 weeks they were blooming and now are 3 ft tall and approx 2-4 ft wide. They've bloomed non stop since May. I'm interested to see how they survive our Montana winter. If they come back next spring, I'll be dividing them next fall to share with all my friends.

Nice salvia! I love how the colors can change from solid red to solid white to a red-white combination! Blooms in mass in the spring and ...Read Moresporadically and in large flushes throughout the summer for me. A little leggy, but otherwise a great garden performer. What can I say? I will always fall for some 'Hot Lips.'

We grow this plant at my job in Berkeley, Ca and it does great, in ALL DAY sun. Gave it as a gift and it does great in San Francisco als...Read Moreo, with much less sun. ..and those flowers? fuhgeduhboutit!

I have had Salvia microphylla for several years and it survived a week and most of another one below freezing this past two weeks and it ...Read Moredidn't flinch. I don't know what it's limits are bit 13 degrees didn't do anything but burn a few leaves on it. It is 4 ft x 8 ft. Still flowering and a great plant.

A humming bird came to get nectar from the flowers just moments after I planted it:)
I haven't seen a humming bird up close in yea...Read Morers.
The blooms are also bright and last a long time.
I can't wait to have a whole field of it in the future:)

I bought two small pots of "Hot Lips" late last Spring. They were very cute. When the blooms decreased I was disappointed...until late ...Read Moresummer and into the fall. The plants would not stop growing or blooming! I was so impressed I searched for more. I found a "Cherry Sage" that made a very nice partner. I now have develped a rage for sage and I am searching for a variety of colors. Hot Lips is still very dear to me, though.

Grew it for the first time this season (found it at Lowe's) and I love it! It got more beautiful as season progressed. I don't know if ...Read MoreI'll get any volunteers from it, but if it doesn't winter over, then I'll have to look and find another.

I live in metro Seattle, and I saw a hummingbird visit my container garden for the first time EVER to eat nectar from this salvia. Hummi...Read Morengbirds have been coming by regularly in the evening since this started blooming a month ago. It's great. :)

10F? Not true. A friend outside of town (average ten degrees cooler in the winter) on a windy hill grows her Salvia 'Hot Lips' in a Xer...Read Moreic Garden. I waited curiously over winter to see if they would return; Two of two have indeed survived a winter that saw at least 0F on her hill. Dry winters may help.

It blooms well with little water. Summer heat (100F+) and drought are not impairments. Most flowers are nearly pure carmine, some are "lipped."

In addition to being hardy in Garden Zone 7b (Seattle), it is a lovely plant.

Blooms in May, and the fragrant leaves are...Read More also very nice.

I just tried this this year. It does well in pots. I also took several cuttings this August which rooted almost immediately.

The 28 degree dips during the winter didn't even phase this plant (just north of Houston.) Mine are planted in semi-shade in well drain...Read Moreed soil. They get tons of water one month and none the next and look great!

This plant is definitely hardy in Zone 8 - central Texas. I have had mine for a couple of years and they have not even died back to the ...Read Moreground. A wonderful salvia and the red and white blooms are so unusual!

This plant is more cold hardy than indicated above. It wintered over in Raleigh, NC (Zone 7b/8a) after being planted in October. No win...Read Moreter protection other than whatever leaves fell onto it and was not cut back until April. It did die back nearly to the ground but it is growing fine now. Much more mature plants came through winter in the area with little die back.

What a great plant in Deer Country. I drove away from our one gallon, planted a year ago and we never did a thing to keep it alive during...Read More the six month's absence. Big bushy three-footer now. I love this plant and plan to grow a bunch of it. Have fun! P.

As the season progresses the flowers will be red/white, solid red, pinky red. This is normal for this cultivar and the same branches will...Read More also make the bi-color flowers. Makes for a real show of color.