I was confronted with a difficult decision today at a local nursery. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. I had to buy 6 plants. We had 5 picked out and it all boiled down to two salvia guaranticas, Black and Blue or Sapphire Blue. The Sapphire Blue looked like the Black and Blue without the black. The dilemma I faced was that I already have one of them. Is there a difference between the two as far as the hummers go? Which one do I have? I finally decided that if I had the black I'd recall seeing it since I've got numerous of them coming up from seed now. A few of them are even blooming already. I got home and found out that I already have the black and blue. I believe we had the Sapphire Blue a few years ago. That must be what I was remembering.

Luckily, I chickened out in the end and got a Mystic Spires.

Has anyone found a preference in the Salvia guaranticas? Or, are they all equally good?

Steve Backes
Valrico, FL (east of Tampa)
http://mysite.verizon.net/resu64md/yardhummers/
http://floridahummingbirds.net/

Steve
I have never had nor seen the Sapphire Blue but if it is a guaranitica as is the B&B I am sure it will work out just as well.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

I have grown both 'Black and Blue' and plain old Salvia guaranitica with the green calyces instead of black. I got both as plants from Select Seed.

Surprisingly, I noticed a distinct preference for 'Green and Blue' over 'Black and Blue.' I wasn't expecting it, figuring they'd like both equally well.

The reason I can say this with confidence is both were grown intermingled in the same patch. I spent a lot of time that summer video taping hummingbirds in that patch of salvia. Then I spent a lot of time examining and editing footage. Guess what? As I worked through the footage, I began noticing that almost every time those little hummingbirds were feeding at a salvia, it was a 'Green and Blue,' not a 'Black and Blue.' I'm not saying 'Black and Blue' isn't a great hummingbird flower, it's just that they showed an overwhelming preference for the 'Green and Blues' in my garden. I have no idea if this is a general preference, or if it was just my particular strains of each plant, or my weird hummingbirds, or what. I think I had a total of about 6 or maybe 8 plants, equal numbers of each variety.

I'm not sure if 'Sapphire Blue' is equivalent to what I bought as 'Salvia guaranitica' from Select Seed. I imagine there could be all sorts of differences in desirability between different strains of these salvias.

Steve, I bought a "Sapphire Blue" salvia at a nursery here, a year or so ago. I'm pretty sure it was Salvia guaranitica "species." Unfortunately it didn't survive the move to my new yard.
It's pretty easy to understand why plant purveyors would want a more enticing label for this plant. But like Kristin said, hummers seem to prefer it over "B&B" no matter what we call it.

Lizette, New Orleans, La.
USDA Zone 9

Steve--- I cant say about the sapphire blue, but last year I recieved the guaranitica blue ensign by mistake and proved to be one of the top favorites in my hummer garden and yes it has the green calyces and it grew to 4 and 1/2 ft tall which may be part of the reason. I have yet to get guaraniticas to come back for me here so I have ordered a couple more this year. The blue ensign are true winners. This year I will be taking cuttings off this plant as I did for the overwintered cupheas.

Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

Steve,

I would have went for the "7th" plant!

Pam NJ 6B