Salvia tips

[WaxMeltsMelting]

My Salvia looked amazing, but most of the flowers are gone now with only a few flowers at the end of the tips. Should I Chelsea chop and would this give me flowers later this summer?

what should I do with it in autumn?

What type of salvia is it? Photo?

I think it’s hot lips

Ok that’s a Salvia Greggii - I have a few different varieties of that & don't bother cutting them back as they tend to continue flowering well into autumn/winter.

I will trim the flowered stems off mine soon - not really a Chelsea chop, more like deadheading really.

Hotlips should keep flowering for ages... Is it a very young plant?

I have several salvias - I don't prune them at all other than cut some of the "leggy" stems in Spring. Mine flower right up to November.

Mine hasn't been great this year and feels a bit woody. Should I have Chelsea chopped? What is that please? The red bits haven't shown.. just a few white flowers.

We've got loads of different types of salvia in our garden and tend to just leave them other than a cut back in late autumn or spring. Have you got a photo of it? They are very drought tolerant and the bees love them so perfect for SE!

I've got six different Salvias in the garden, strangely, Hot Lips is not flowering particularly well, flowers are mostly white. I have it in a tub as it can be a thug in the garden, I had to dig one up once, it was totally covering all the other plants near it.

The other salvias I just leave, trim them down in the spring and they are flowering fantastically.

Salvia Amistad on the other hand is really tall but as yet, no flower heads appearing. Not sure if I've done something wrong or whether it will flower eventually.

The Chelsea chop is a technique for delaying flowering is herbaceous plants so not suitable for shrubby Salvias. I'd lightly clip over to remove the spent flowers and give it a high potash feed ( tomato feed) Mine are all in pots as they don't overwinter wet in my soil and have paused flowering at the moment. I expect the compost has run out of nutrients so I shall be clipping and feeding. Good time to take cuttings from those clippings too!

I refresh (lightly cutback) my hot lips (plus my nepeta, black and blue, nachtvinder) all summer and it bounces back beautifully. Now is a great time to take cuttings from salvia if you want more plants.