I started Salvia Big Blue from seed this spring. I lost a lot of the small seedlings (possibly due to too much water) early on and ended up with only ten plants from 30 seeds.

I read some posts here comparing Big Blue to Mystic Spires and people generally seemed to prefer Mystic Spires. At that time, I had to admit that my Big Blues looked underwhelming and I was debating if it was worth starting from seed again. They have, however, really glowed up and I will be trying them from seed again next spring. Here is a group of 3 plants that are up to four feet tall. Along with ageratum, zinnia, tithonia, cleome, misc snapdragons and salvia farinacea (reseeded from last year). A huge bonus to salvia so far the deer and rabbits do not touch them (keeping fingers crossed because this year I lost many zinnia, coneflower and rudbeckia to deer, whereas previously they had not bothered them).

Any other great salvias to try out? I have seen so many offered in catalogs but never know how they will do. I tried Clary Sage (S horminum) for the first time this year but they were not season long bloomers (or bracters :P I think the showy bits on them are actually bracts).