'Hot Lips' Sage Plants

Salvia x jamensis 'Hot Lips'

Hot Lips is a bushy, lively Salvia variety with jolly two-tone blooms that are mostly half white, half bright lipstick red, varying between more red in July and more white at the end of their wonderfully long flowering season: generally from July to October, often until the first frost in a sheltered, cosy spot.
To under 1 metre tall.

Browse our range of Salvia varieties, or all our perennial plants.

Features

• Flowers: Variable bicolour, bright red & white
• In Bloom: July to October / first frost
• Foliage: Mid green leaves.
• Height x Spread: 90 x 90cm.
• Position: Full sun. Sheltered sites are best in the North
• Soil: Any well drained
• Grows on the coast. Ideal for pots
• RHS Plants for Pollinators
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Growing 'Hot Lips' Salvia

Salvias need close to full sun. They are fully hardy and grow in exposed coastal locations, although their flowering season shortens with increasing cold and wind. 

They are happy on chalk, loving a light, well-drained soil enriched with organic matter that doesn't remain wet in winter. Heavy clay is not good, unless it is on a slope or raised location that sheds water in winter.
Established plants are drought resistant, but flower best with a little consistent moisture in dry summer periods.

In your Garden Design

They are perfect for a Mediterranean or gravel garden, and are a favourite choice for containers (especially matching red ones) where the flowers make a startling statement all on their own or mixed with similar Salvias like Caradonna. 

As the centrepiece, or thriller, in a classic three element design for a large pot, Hot Lips can billow up behind a dainty little white patio rose, with tendrils of a nearby clematis bubbling around the base of the rose and over the sides of the pot.

Location:

• Full sun
• Any well-drained soil
• Ideal for containers
• Spacing: 60cm 

Planting:

• Prepare the soil well to break up compaction and dig organic matter down to the depth of one or two spades.
• Soak your plants in their pots for a minute prior to planting.
• Make a hole with square sides about twice the size of the rootball.
• After removing the pots, gently massage the bottom of the rootball to tease out inward turning roots.
• Plant so that the soil is level with the compost in the pot. It often helps to make a small mound at the bottom of the hole on which to set your plant at the right height, and spread its roots out over.
• Firm the soil back down using gentle pressure and then plenty of water.

Always water new plants well until established, after which Salvia is drought tolerant.

Aftercare:

• Protect young plants from slugs with organic Sluggo.
• Deadhead promptly to get the most from the flowering season.
• Prune out two-year-old growth in spring after the last frost, leaving the smaller new shoots.
• Mulch lightly every year, after a heavy spring rain when the soil has warmed up. Salvias don't need much fertility, so a low fertility mulch like straw every other year is good.
• Divide mature clumps in Spring.

Did You Know?

Listed variously as Salvia × jamensis or S. microphylla, the name Hot Lips was selected by volunteers at the Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco, who helped horticultural manager Don Mahoney propagate it for sales in the United States.
This popular variety is the parent of Amethyst Lips.