How to Care for Salvias and Plant Angelonias

I took a quick break from the nursery reno to complete a much-needed update in a flower bed I planted last fall. This is what it looked like right after planting in September 2014.

So pretty and full of color!

The salvia varieties along the back are perennials. But the ones in front were not. So they’d need to be replaced at some point anyway. And after a few frosts this winter the perennials looked a little worse for the wear. I pruned them back when the weather was warming up, hoping they’d grow back abundantly. And they did! Maybe a little too much…

Now the view from the back deck I’ve been trying to improve is uninspiring.

In particular the one closest to the garage door couldn’t hold itself up!

I tried to prop it up with a trellis leftover from another plant, but it just didn’t look right.

With a little research, I determined I could prune them back in the middle of the summer and they’d still have time to grow up before the blooming season was over. So I pruned some of them down to the ground. (There are 2 different kinds of salvias along the back of the bed in an alternating pattern. I pruned all the ones that were the same as the droopy last one.) The others I just trimmed up by pruning the worst of the branches.

But I couldn’t wait for the salvias to come back for some color in this bed. So I walked my little wheelbarrow across the street and picked up some pine straw and these pretty flowers. The pink ones grabbed my attention in the garden area, but the tag made the sale. They are “Archangel” Angelonias. Who doesn’t need a little extra protection from the archangels any way you can get it? Even from the flowers in your yard!

Of course they only had 2 pinks left! I grabbed the last purple one too just for some more color. And variety is the spice of life, right?

It would have been better to have 1 or 2 more to spread them out, but for the time being I think this looks much better! (The pine straw helps too!)

Not as thick and full as last year’s flower bed, but with any luck the salvias will grow back and bloom and it’ll be alright. Until then this $12 update should hold me over. 🙂