Yes, I saw it, took a moment to calm myself, remembered to pay for it, and brought it home. Tremendously exciting. It was full of flower spikes that have since bloomed and been cut back, and it is making solid, bushy growth. Bought it in the fall. The picture you posted is a dead ringer. The flower spikes have a day-glo quality to the color.

Wow! Where can I find that gem (locally, not on-line)?

Jen

That is a beautiful color in the leaf, and the red contrasting flower is awesome. It is reminiscent of 'Margarita' Sweet Potato Vine leaves. Wow!

Joseph

I know Plant Delights has it in Raleigh, but the Seattle Times wrote that it is a new variety that "garden centers" will have next spring.

""garden centers" will have next spring"
I hope so!
Denise, is it just as fragrant?

Rose

Singing SPrings have it too.

I spoke to Tony Avent last night, and Plant Delights will indeed have it. It is a patented plant like the some of the Navajo Salvia greggii forms, Salvia farinacea x `Mystic Spires', Salvia greggii `Desert Blaze', and Salvia leucantha `Santa Barbara'. Plant Delights will be getting `Mystic Spires'.

Oh my good-en-ness!
I will be in line for that one when it hits the garden centers here! Thanks for the post and link.

Resurrecting this thread because I found one of these at one of my local small nurseries yesterday. It is fragrant and the golden leaves are a bonus! Plus there was a bloom on the one I picked up.

Just as a note, the picture at that link is a bit...ahem... enhanced. ;-) Ie., the leaves aren't neon yellow. But they are golden yellow, not unlike the typical gold-leafed plants out there. I expect it might be more yellow in more sun. And the fragrance is pineapple like it's cousin, although not as intense (even when a leaf is rubbed). It does stand out from other plants though, so a nice addition to a salvia garden for those who have S. elegans in the ground year round.

I just found a few also at a local nursery and the fragrance is wonderful. Without telling my hubby what it should smell like, I made him rub the leaves and smell the foliage and he said that it smelled like a rum drink. yea-pina colada LOL.

I bought it in the spring at a plant sale. I planted it out in front of a large climbing rose whose canes give it some dappled afternoon shade. It is a beautiful chartreuse color that glows from a distance. It is not blooming now, but it was when I purchased it in the spring.

Denise.....may I ask which nursery did you found it at?
Sherry

Sherry, I've seen it at lot of local nurseries in So. Calif. Should be pretty easy to find this season. Saw it at an Armstrong's nursery earlier this week. I've moved my original plant, which immediately outgrew its spot and barely bloomed from all the cutting back I was doing. It also seemed plagued by worms quite a bit, not sure which kind. Seems to be doing much better in its new, shadier spot, without much worm damage this year.

Thanks...I'll check all the Armstrong's that I pass. Of course, I just finished telling myself today that I WILL NOT bring home any more plants until I get the ones I already have into the ground! Sure..... I can pass up anything except a salvia that I don't have.
Sherry

Update: It's been a year since I planted it and today I was admiring it glowing in the setting sunlight. Currently it is covered with scarlet blooms atop glowing yellow-green foliage. The habit is somewhat lax.... could that be our rich soil? It is very eye-catching from a distance and is a nice companion for purple Verbena. So far, it's a keeper and I'd like to find more.