I have always taken cuttings to be on the safe side. a hard frost will see them off otherwise. but I'm up in east Yorkshire.

Hi, Salvia x jamensis 'pink lips' is frost tender, and I have never heard of 'cottage cream' but there's a S clotted cream, which is supposed to be hardy, except in severe winters, when they will need some protection, Derek.

Thank you both. Derek, I meant Clotted Cream( senile slip) :-). I have them in pots & will put them in a shed on very cold nights if that's ok. Still flowering at the moment, do they shed their leaves & be bare & twiggy during the winter, like Fuchsias. I think I will also try some cuttings as well.

They come really easily from cuttings, Feverfew, and mine have never suffered from the cold. We cut ours hard back in Spring and they flourish anew!

Hi, If I'm not mistaken, these are the shrubby type, they will lose their leaves, but they don't die back like the herbaceous types, they should be ok in a shed on very cold nights, as they wont have leaves, but get them out as soon as it gets a bit warmer, or they may go tender, Derek.

I have the hot lips salvia , live in North Yorkshire and last winter did no damage to the plant. I usually trim it back in spring . It's still flowering well now. You say yours are in pots so perhaps protect the pot and roots from frost, ( not the plant, no use in fleecing top growth and allowing roots to freeze).

I was at a talk last night from a lady who has a salvia nursery. She had an interesting suggestion for young salvias that were planted (in the ground) this year - take a few inches of top growth off them as it stimulates the roots to go deeper in order to survive

Blimey, that's interestingly counter intuitive Andrew, isn't it... presumably that only applies to Salvias less than a year old?

Bamboo - I was only asking about one year old plants, having recently purchased a couple that are now in one litre pots. I am planning to plant them at the end of next week and give them the 'haircut' she suggested. I will mulch the roots when the weather starts to turn colder, and maybe fleece them in very cold spells over the winter. She explained you are shocking the plants to think they are under threat, so they will take preventative methods to ensure their survival.

Hi Andrew - what an interesting comment. Was she talking about the shrubby type or the perennials?

Both Sheila. I had specifically asked about two shrubby ones, but she said it would apply to herbaceous ones as well

Thank you :)

Interesting info. I think I'm going to wrap up the pots & give a bit of a trim when they finally lose their leaves. I might plant in the ground in Spring, just wasn't ready for this when I bought them.

Feverfew, I've taken cuttings of three salvias this year, all of which have taken well so far. Carol Klein demonstrated taking cuttings on Gardeners World a couple of weeks ago and she took much bigger ones than I did, so I've done some more with more leaf growth. Although we are in Devon, last winter was a disaster for my salvias. Cutting them back sounds like good advice but who wants to do that now when they are at their best? Maybe later.

Thank you for your comment Merlin. Now I'm going out to take those cuttings, to be on the safe side. Very cold wind here at present.