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Salvia x guaranitica 'Rhythm & Blues' PP 29,585 (Bodacious® Rhythm & Blues Sage) - A 3 to 4 foot tall by equal spread bushy subshrub (woody at base with herbaceous stems). It has attractive 3- to 4-inch-long shade shaped leaves that are shiny mid green above and paler below with prominent veins and blunt teeth along the margins. These leaves are a great foil for the 6- to 10-inch-long terminal inflorescences that appear spring into fall with slender dark stems holding 1.5 inch long intense two lipped blue flowers that have a hood-like upper lip and a shorter lower one and purple blue, nearly black, calyxes.
Plant in full sun along the coast but may require some shade in hotter locations in a moderately well drained soil and irrigate occasionally to regularly - this is not what we consider to be a particularly drought tolerant plant. Evergreen in our coastal climate but reliably hardy as a perennial down to USDA zone 8 with foliage emerging in early spring and grown as an annual elsewhere. Prune plants to near the ground in late winter tip new growth to make plants denser. With its denser stature and earlier flowering than other Salvia guaranitica selections, this plant has become quite popular with gardeners and to visiting hummingbirds, bees and butterflies yet it is resistant to predation by deer.
Salvia guaranitica is native to southeastern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina and is also commonly called Guarani Sage, Sapphire Sage and Anise-scented Sage or Blue Anise Sage for its only slightly fragrant foliage. The name Salvia comes from the name used by Pliny for a plant in the genus and comes from the Latin word 'salvere' meaning "to save" in reference to the long-believed healing properties of several Sage species. The specific epithet means "of Guara" in reference to this plant coming from Guara, Brazil.
The 'Rhythm & Blues' cultivar is often compared to the popular Salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue' that is larger, less compact, begins blooming a bit later in early summer and sometimes has older leaves that yellow, which this cultivar does not exhibit. It was selected in 2015 from a population of seedlings that Kermit Carter grew from seed that was the result of controlled hybridization between the pollen parent a selected Salvia guaranitica var. violacea and seed parent a selection Salvia guaranitica var purpurea. This hybridization work and selection was carried out by him at his Flowers by the Sea nursery in Elk, California. It received US Plant Patent PP29,585 in August 2018 and the trademarked name Bodacious® Rhythm & Blues Sage was applied shortly after.
We first received this plant (as Salvia guaranitica #9) in 2016 from Kermit Carter through a trial arranged for by PlantHaven International and over subsequent years it has proven itself to be a long lived, durable and attractive plant.
This information about Salvia guaranitica 'Rhythm & Blues' PP 29,585 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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