Autumn is the most glorious season for salvias.   Perhaps it is because we ourselves feel relieved that the heat is gone but the plants seem to show their pleasure by a huge burst of flowering.  There is also often rain in most parts of Australia and the coolness that goes with rain.   Flowers are very bright after the bleaching sun of summer.

Every bee in the vicinity gets out collecting  for winter and the little birds are making the branches dance as they happily find stray insects.

For salvias,   winter dormant does not necessarily mean there is nothing to see.   It can mean they are not moving.   There are very few salvias that have nothing at all visible during winter.

From autumn until the first killing frost the garden looks nice,  once frost comes it tends to look rather untidy.  There is the dilemma of whether you should cut the blackened bits off or not.   The public’s general idea is that you can cut salvias to the ground and they will come again.   Not everyone will but if you have plenty of plant you can afford to lose some of it.

In winter rainfall areas late winter is the time to cherish every sunny day to get the weeds out while the garden is still soft and moist.   It not only gets the weeds out but it is before they go to seed when the heat comes.