Salvia grahami Benth.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘This is a native of Mexico, introduced by J. G. Graham. Esq. to the Horticultural Society’s garden whence we received it.  It is a soft shrubby plant, with shewy flowers, produced during the greater part of the summer and autumn.’  [LBC 1798/1831].  ‘Flowers bright purple, very handsome, about an inch long, including the calyx.  This begins to flower in July, and continues in beauty till October: its flowers are not so shewy as those of S. fulgens and splendens; but the richness of their purple, and their constant succession, amply compensate for inferiority of size.  It should be planted out in the open border in May, and transferred to the greenhouse at the approach of frost; or if cuttings, by which it increases freely, are struck in the autumn, as a provision for another year, the old plant may be abandoned to its fate.  Our drawing was made in the Garden of the Horticultural Society, where it had been named by Mr. Bentham in compliment to the gentleman by whom it was discovered and introduced.’  [BR f.1370/1830].  Introduced to Britain in 1829.  [JD].

History at Camden Park

Desideratum to Loddiges nursery, 6th January 1845.  [MP A2933-2, p.28].

Notes