Salvia ringens
Encyclopedia
Salvia ringens is a hardy herbaceous perennial native to the southern and eastern parts of the Balkan Peninsula, with many colonies growing on Mount Olympus
, the traditional "home of the gods", at altitudes up to 6200 feet (1,889.8 m). Elsewhere, it grows in scrub and coniferous woodland between 1600 feet (487.7 m) and 4200 feet (1,280.2 m). It was grown in English gardens before 1913, and was described by William Robinson
in the twelfth edition of The English Flower Garden in 1933. It dropped from sight before being rediscovered in the late 1990s.
Salvia ringens forms a basal clump of pinnately divided leaves, typically less than 1 foot high and wide. The leaves are dark green with a grayish cast, with petioles and stems that stand out with a wine color. From summer through autumn the plant produces tall (2 foot) flowering stems with two to four flowers at the top, in widely spaced whorls. There are only a few stems at any given time. The 1.5 inch violet-blue flowers are very showy and large, held in a small calyx covered with hair and glands. The specific epithet, ringens, refers to the wide open two-lipped flowers.
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...
, the traditional "home of the gods", at altitudes up to 6200 feet (1,889.8 m). Elsewhere, it grows in scrub and coniferous woodland between 1600 feet (487.7 m) and 4200 feet (1,280.2 m). It was grown in English gardens before 1913, and was described by William Robinson
William Robinson (gardener)
William Robinson was an Irish practical gardener and journalist whose ideas about wild gardening spurred the movement that evolved into the English cottage garden, a parallel to the search for honest simplicity and vernacular style of the British Arts and Crafts movement...
in the twelfth edition of The English Flower Garden in 1933. It dropped from sight before being rediscovered in the late 1990s.
Salvia ringens forms a basal clump of pinnately divided leaves, typically less than 1 foot high and wide. The leaves are dark green with a grayish cast, with petioles and stems that stand out with a wine color. From summer through autumn the plant produces tall (2 foot) flowering stems with two to four flowers at the top, in widely spaced whorls. There are only a few stems at any given time. The 1.5 inch violet-blue flowers are very showy and large, held in a small calyx covered with hair and glands. The specific epithet, ringens, refers to the wide open two-lipped flowers.