Smokey Jazz is a Bodacious salvia whose spikes of flowers rise over aromatic foliage and keep blooming for months, the stems forming a compact, bushy clump. Hummingbirds and bees work the spikes through the warm months. Smokey Jazz doesn't name its colour, so judge the flowers for yourself when they open.

Give it full sun and well-drained soil, because wet clay in our summers rots the crown faster than heat ever will. Shear it back after each flush of bloom to bring on the next. Deer generally leave salvias alone, which makes it a sensible choice along the front of a border.