I have been on a mini spending spree this summer making some additions to the garden, though more specifically the greenhouse or the summer garden since they include a lot of fuchsias and some tender plants that will only spend summer outside.

First is Pavonia missionum. Just to get my worries out of the way first, I always knew pavonias as shrubs like P. multiflora with colourful epicalyx and petals rolled into a tube like an umbrella. The more I know the malvaceae the more confused I get because these blooms are very like the anisodontea I featured last month. Just when I think I am getting to grips with malva, malope, lavatera and the rest I get totally stumped. Anyway, this is a pavonia.

It is native to South America including Argentina where it is found, and presumably was found by the person that first described it formally, in Misiones province. How annoying that the name was spelt incorrectly so that, knowing the place of origin I will never again spell correctly either the species name or the province. It is a bushy, spreading shrub with slightly sticky, aromatic leaves – not enough to be a feature, either positively or negatively. It should flower from July to the frosts of autumn and the blooms are certainly bright and cheerful. They are not huge, most references say 1 1/2in (3cm+) but that is a little optimistic – just a bit! The flowers unfurl at dawn but, here at least, they are rolling up again by 3pm. So this is not a plant for ‘slugabeds’.

My plant is still young but has already been blooming and I have to say I like it as much as I had hoped. It needs full sun, will tolerate drought and it may survive a light frost. I think it would be a good prospect in a well-drained, dry raised bed near the coast. But I won’t risk it outside here until I have rooted some cuttings and have some spares. Even then I think it is the old, original plant (not that it is old yet) that I will try. In time it should reach at least 1m high and wide. The flowers should be popular with butterflies.

My pavonia was a very considered purchase but yesterday I made an impulse buy while getting the groceries. I don’t recommend buying plants along with your milk and butter but some salvias gasping for water outside the store attracted my attention and I had to buy one of the two different kinds. There was pink ‘Lake Garda’ and blue ‘Lake Titicaca’. I would love to be able to convince myself that I bought the latter because I don’t have many blue salvias at the moment and have ‘Tubular Bells’ which is a similar colour to ‘Lake Garda’ but I fear it was just because it saying ‘Lake Titicaca’ makes me feel like a naughty schoolboy or Frankie Howerd.

As it turns out, I should have bought ‘Lake Garda’ because, not only is 2023 ‘the year of the salvia’ (according to someone) but ‘Viva Magenta’ (the colour of ‘Lake Garda’) is Pantone’s colour of the year! Oh well, I am happy to be fashionably unfashionable.

Anyway being grown up about it, it appears that these are two of a series of new salvias in the ‘Salgoon’ (R) series produced in The Netherlands by HilverdaFlorist. They are all supposed to be compact (to about 60cm) and to flower freely. I must say that a lot look similar. It is strange that they are all named after lakes though although most have ‘Lake’ as the first word, but not all do and so there is ‘Strawberry Lake’. Perhaps these were named first but it seems like bad planning. I see that new, improved varieties are already being introduced so now there is ‘Lake Onega Improved’. I really wish these companies would not do this. There are a dozen or so varieties, bred for long flowering and compact habit as well as drought and heat tolerance. We will see how long they persist in the trade as well as the garden.

It seems they are being distributed in the USA where they are being sold as ‘hummingbird magnets’ – as are most salvias. Here in the ‘Old World’ we will have to be content to amuse bees and butterflies with our salvias.

It is very unlikely to be hardy here and I will take cuttings to overwinter. I have half a dozen other salvias that need the same treatment and I do not begrudge them the effort. I am happy to give the plants a bit of attention for the long season of flowers they provide. Whether ‘Lake Titicaca’ proves to be good or not, I will discover soon, but I am pretty forgiving when it comes to salvias.

pavonia missionum, pavonia nissionorum, salvia lake titicaca