Salpiglossis

Photo: ©Presented by farmerblue.com

Farmer Blue is a 12-acre, cut-flower farm in Seabrook. Its owner is working hard to build a better bouquet with local flowers. The farm grows over 300 varieties of annuals and perennials for florists and event planners in the Lowcountry. 

Here is owner David Blue’s favorite flower for July:

Salpiglossis is a genus of around three species of annuals or short-lived perennials native to Mexico, Argentina and Chile. Many of the plants sold under the common name of salpiglossis or “painted tongue” are hybrid cultivars that are primarily derived from S. sinuata. As a group, these cultivars are upright annuals that grow to 1.5-3-inches tall on somewhat weak stems clad with lanceolate green leaves (up to 4-inches long) with wavy margins. Leaves and stems are typically hairy and sticky. Funnel-shaped, wide-throated, five-lobed flowers (to 2-inches wide) in clusters bloom from the upper leaf axils in the cool temperatures of late spring to early summer, with continued bloom throughout summer, usually occurring only in cool summer areas. Flower colors typically include shades of red, orange, yellow, bronze, violet or purple, usually with marbling or contrasting veins in different colors. The genus name comes from the Greek words salpinx, meaning a trumpet, and glossa, meaning a tongue, with reference to the elongated trumpet-shaped flower.