Scheming Native Arizona Salvias
Borderlands Restoration Network’s Native Plant Program provides a diversity of eco typically appropriate plant materials (seeds and container plants) sourced from local watersheds. The process from source to sale is a long one and includes seed collection, propagation, and growout in our seed increaser fields on our restoration farm for both container plant production and seed sale. Although we provide access to hundreds of species of native plants for a variety of planting projects, we want to focus on some fun Salvia species we have been working on this year.
Salvia is a genus in the mint (Lamiaceae) plant family and comprises almost 1,000 species, with around 16 of those native to Arizona. Common Salvias you might be familiar with that do well in our landscapes include S. greggii (Autumn Sage), native to Texas and Mexico, S. clevelandii (Cleveland Sage), native to southern California, or S. leucantha (Mexican Bush Sage), native to Mexico. We have been busy increasing quantities of some of the Salvias native to our region in Arizona.
Our most commonly sold Salvia is S. columbariae (Desert Chia), which was sourced in lower elevations, and is an annual we sometimes have available in seed packets. This beauty has been grown out successfully on a hilltop garden in Patagonia at one of our volunteer’s homes, as the restoration farm is slightly too cold for successful germination in the spring.
One of our favorite success stories is our wild sourced and now cultivated S. amissa (Santa Catalina Mountain Sage) which we had collected source seed from the wild in the Galiuro mountains, propagated at the nursery, have established in the seed increaser plots on our farm, and this year will have both seed and container plants available for purchase. This species is not found commonly in cultivation and is an incredible nectar source for native bees and butterflies.
Another great local beauty is S. lemmonii (Lemmon’s Sage), sourced from the Chiricahua mountains, that we are successfully growing at the nursery but will be heading to our farmed fields this year. We will hopefully have seeds and plants available in 2026 and are really excited!
Lastly, we are also working with S. parryi (Parry’s Sage), a beautiful aromatic sage found in Santa Cruz county and northern Sonora that we sourced from just outside of Patagonia. We have propagated only a few individual plants via cuttings and hope to make these available in 2026 through more clonal propagation as there are very few individual plants to collect much seed from.
Increasing availability of native plant species for use in restoration and home gardens is a lot of joyous work that does not happen overnight and we appreciate all of the support from our fellow native plant and biodiversity enthusiasts. Here’s to more native Arizona Salvia species for restoration in the wild and our homes!
More info: https://www.borderlandsplants.org/post/scheming-native-arizona-salvias