Texas Native Salvias: Autumn, Mealy Blue, Scarlet and Cedar Sage

Salvias are the workhorses of a Texas pollinator garden. They bloom for months, most of them shrug off heat and dry spells, and deer tend to leave them alone. Four natives cover almost every situation a Texas yard can throw at you: autumn sage, mealy blue sage, scarlet sage and cedar sage.

They are not interchangeable. One is a woody shrub for hot, rocky ground. One is a blue-flowered perennial that tolerates clay. One is a fast, reseeding red wildflower that blooms in shade. One is a small plant for the dry shade under cedars. Picking the right one for the spot matters more than anything you do after planting.

The four at a glance

	Autumn sage	Mealy blue sage	Scarlet sage	Cedar sage
Botanical name	Salvia greggii	Salvia farinacea	Salvia coccinea	Salvia roemeriana
Plant type	Woody shrub	Perennial	Reseeding wildflower	Small perennial
Height	2 to 3 ft	1.5 to 3 ft	1 to 3 ft	1 to 1.5 ft
Flower color	Red, pink, coral, white	Blue to purple	Red	Red
Bloom months	March to November	April to October	April to November	Spring, then again in fall
Light	Full sun to part shade	Full sun to part shade	Sun, part shade or shade	Part shade to shade
Soil	Rocky, sandy, limestone	Clay, rocky or sandy	Sandy, loam or clay	Rocky limestone
USDA zones	7 to 10	7 to 10	8 to 11	7 to 9
Deer resistant	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

All four need soil that drains. That is the one rule that applies across the group, and soggy soil is the most common way gardeners lose them.

Which salvia for which spot

Hot, full sun, rocky or sandy ground: autumn sage. It comes from the rocky slopes of the Hill Country, the Edwards Plateau and West Texas, and it wants the same conditions in a yard.

Full sun on clay: mealy blue sage. It is the most clay-tolerant of the four and handles the heavy, alkaline soil along the I-35 corridor as long as water does not stand on it.

Mixed light, under trees, or anywhere you are not sure: scarlet sage. It flowers in sun, part shade and even full shade, and it grows in sand, loam or clay. It blooms most heavily with more sun.

Dry shade under junipers and oaks on limestone: cedar sage. It is a specialist, and in the right spot it gives you red flowers where few other plants will bloom at all.

If you want hummingbirds all season in a sunny bed, plant autumn sage and scarlet sage together. If the bed is shady, pair scarlet sage with cedar sage. Mealy blue sage adds the blue that most hummingbird beds are missing and keeps bees busy from spring to frost.

Autumn sage (Salvia greggii)

Autumn sage is a small evergreen shrub, 2 to 3 feet tall, that flowers in flushes from March into November. The native species is usually red, but plants in pink, coral and white are common in nurseries. It also goes by Gregg’s salvia and cherry sage.

Give it full sun for the most flowers. It tolerates part shade with fewer blooms. What it cannot take is heavy soil that stays wet. In a clay yard, plant it in a raised bed or on a slope.

The one pruning job that matters: after the big spring bloom fades, shear the plant back by a third to a half. That keeps it dense and brings on the next rounds of flowers through summer and fall. It needs little or no fertilizer, and once established it gets through Texas summers without extra water.

Is autumn sage deer resistant? Yes. Deer generally leave Salvia greggii alone, which is a big reason it is planted so widely in the Hill Country.

To make more plants, take 4 to 6 inch cuttings from healthy stems without flowers in late spring or summer. They typically root in about three weeks. Full autumn sage guide.

Mealy blue sage (Salvia farinacea)

Mealy blue sage is the blue salvia native to Texas. It sends up spikes of blue to purple flowers from April into October on a soft-stemmed perennial 1.5 to 3 feet tall. You will also see it sold as mealycup sage.

Its big advantage is soil. Where most native salvias want rock or sand, this one grows in clay, loam, sand or rocky ground, as long as the site drains. It takes full sun to part shade.

Cut off spent spikes during the season to keep new ones coming. After a long bloom run, cutting the plant back to about half its height thickens it up and brings on a second, shorter flush, and keeps taller plants from flopping. It reseeds freely. Leave some seed heads at the end of the season if you want it to spread, or deadhead everything if you do not.

Bees are its main visitors, and it draws butterflies and hummingbirds too. Nurseries also sell bedding cultivars bred from the same species for uniform color. The straight native species is the better choice for pollinators. Full mealy blue sage guide.

Scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea)

Scarlet sage is the easygoing one. It grows quickly from seed, blooms red from April into November, and fills in on its own by reseeding. Plants reach 1 to 3 feet. It is also called tropical sage and blood sage.

It is the most shade-tolerant salvia in this group, which makes it the go-to red flower for a hummingbird planting under trees or on the north side of a house. In deeper shade it stretches and gets leggy, so trim it back now and then.

Is scarlet sage a perennial? It depends on your winter. It acts as an annual where winters are hard and as a short-lived perennial where they stay mild. Either way, self-sown seedlings usually replace any plants lost to a freeze.

Direct-sow seed after the last frost, or start it indoors for earlier flowers. The foliage has a pungent smell when brushed, which helps keep deer away. Full scarlet sage guide.

Cedar sage (Salvia roemeriana)

Cedar sage is the smallest of the four, a low clump about a foot tall with rounded leaves and thin stems of crimson flowers. It blooms in spring into early summer and often again in fall. It is native to the Edwards Plateau and the Balcones Canyonlands, where it grows in the shade of cedar brakes and oak woods on rocky limestone.

In a garden it wants the same thing: part shade to shade and alkaline soil that drains fast. Heavy clay, thick mulch piled against the stems and overwatering all lead to crown rot. After its first summer, it needs very little water.

It reseeds, but the seed has to reach bare soil. Clear some fallen leaves where you want seedlings. It is also called Roemer’s sage. Full cedar sage guide.

Care that applies to all four

Start with drainage. Every one of these plants fails in soil that stays soggy, so raise the bed, plant on a slope or choose mealy blue sage for clay.

Water through the first summer, then back off, and skip the fertilizer; extra feeding mostly makes salvias leggy. After each big flush of flowers, trim the plants back. All four respond with more blooms.

Finally, let some seed fall. Mealy blue, scarlet and cedar sage all reseed, and those seedlings keep a planting going for years without replanting.

A note on “Texas sage”

Texas sage, also called cenizo, is not a salvia at all. It is a silver-leaved desert shrub, Leucophyllum frutescens, that blooms purple after rain. It shares the low-water habits of the salvias above and pairs well with autumn sage, but its care is different.

Where to go next

For more plants that feed hummingbirds, see the Texas hummingbird plants list. For more plants deer tend to skip, see deer-resistant Texas natives. If your salvia bed is in shade, the Texas shade guide covers the other plants that bloom there.

Sources: plant data from the USDA PLANTS Database and the Native Plant Society of Texas species profiles for Salvia greggii and Salvia roemeriana.