SALVIA NEMOROSA `MARCUS`

If there ever was a poster boy for an overachieving garden plant, ‘Marcus’ would be it. Its dense, compact, low profile form nearly recedes into the garden until it starts to put up 3 to 4″ long flower spikes above its foliage in late spring. As the small, deep purple flowers begin to open in June this plant leaps into your consciousness and then it overwhelms it as ‘Marcus’ covers itself with bloom, almost completely obscuring the tightly bunched, deep green lance-like foliage. ‘Marcus’ will bloom into September especially if spent blooms are pruned off and is right at home in a sunny garden with well-drained soil and, given its small stature, is a plant that begs to be massed to overwhelm the senses when in bloom.