Salvia verticillata ‘Purple Rain’ (Whorled Sage)

Primarily grown for the look of its beautiful foliage and flowers, Salvia verticillata ‘Purple Rain’ is a popular hardy Salvia that is welcomed in many gardens. This attractive perennial features upright reddish stems, often gracefully arching, lined with interesting whorls of rosy-purple bracts highlighted with small violet-blue flowers. Appearing in early summer, the flowers bloom abundantly for weeks if deadheaded. They rise above a bushy mound of large, lyre-shaped, fuzzy, green leaves. Striking in the garden when in bloom, this Salvia brings color and form to the early summer border.

• Reliable and easy to grow, this erect, compact herbaceous perennial grows in clumps up to 18-30 in. high (45-75 cm) and nearly as wide.
• Enjoys full sun in average, dry to medium, well-drained soils. Tolerates light shade. Provide a sheltered location from cold or drying winds. 
• This superb Salvia cultivar makes an attractive accent in perennial borders, butterfly gardens, city gardens, coastal gardens, rock gardens or cottage gardens.
• Drought tolerant, deer and rabbit resistant, it is a real magnet for butterflies, hummingbirds and bees!
• Watch for slugs and snails, aphids, capsid bug, leafhoppers, rosemary beetle, powdery mildew and Verticillium wilt.
• Remove spent flower spikes to promote further blooms and cut back after flowering is over.
• Take basal stem cuttings in late spring; stem-tip cuttings in late summer or in early fall and propagate by division in spring.
• Native to Europe and western Asia