Add flowering scarlet sage plants to your pollinator garden and watch the hummingbirds flock to feed on the sweet nectar.
Scarlet Sage Care and Growing Tips
- Common name: Scarlet sage, scarlet salvia, red sage, blood sage
- Scientific name: Salvia coccinea
- Zones: 8 to 10 or Annual
- Attracts: Bees, butterflies, birds
- Light needs: Full sun to partial shade
- Soil needs: well-draining sandy soils
This showy flowering plant puts on a show for weeks, from early summer through the first frost of fall. Place scarlet sage in containers and sunny borders with well-draining soil. The warm colors attract hummingbirds on the move or during migration. Heat-loving scarlet sage tolerates drought but flowers best with consistent watering. Plants reseed readily in milder climates. In most zones, you can grow scarlet sage as an annual.
Wildlife Benefits
Pollinators love salvia’s sweet nectar and bright hue. However, deer typically ignore it. Goldfinches will feed on the seeds in fall.
Editor’s note: While hummingbirds love the color red, they’re likely to stop at any color of salvia. Plant an array of hues, shapes and forms to provide diverse opportunities for pollinators to enjoy throughout the growing season and to make your garden a buzzing hub of activity.
Cultivars to Grow
Lady in Red
This plant is an All-America Selections winner, chosen for its high performance, dwarf size and early blooming flowers. It grows 12 to 14 inches tall, with brilliant red blooms from May into November—it can even handle a light frost.
Unplugged Red
If you’re looking for an easy, high impact plant, you can’t go wrong with this compact native annual salvia. It makes a striking thriller in containers, thanks to its fragrant deep green foliage and vibrant red blooms that blossom all season long. This variety produces more blooms if you trim off the upper third of growth.
