Salvia iodantha 'Compacta'
This plant has been known of in my family for a very, very long time and has been tentatively identified as Salvia iodantha 'Compacta'. After a trip back to the old farmhouse near Te Kuiti last year my parents managed to get some pieces of the original plant and now I have a few cutting-grown plants available to purchase. Please excuse the lack of good photos...we still haven't got a decent digital photo of this beauty! This is a great plant for late autumn/winter interest when the dark magenta pink flowers appear in bunches. The plant is a bit tidier in habit than the original species, and makes more of a thicket-type shrub. Appreciates a position with morning sun and compost-rich soils. Frost hardy and evergreen. Size at maturity around 1.5m x 1.5m. 1 litre pot.