Salvia splendens from Brazil can grow up to 30-45cm high in the tropics.
I'm not talking about that overused gaudy red variety of Salvia splendens that grows about a foot tall.
One of these was " Salvia splendens ", known as Lee's scarlet sage, which became popular as an ornamental summer flower in England and Germany.
Deborah Howard, who runs Howard Garden Designs Inc . in Newton, Mass . with her architect daughter Karen, likes Salvia splendens Van Houttei, which spreads 3 feet and is covered with " gorgeous blood red flowers ."
The bright pink flowers of Hibiscus laevis were nodding their heads over a deep red Salvia splendens called Van Houttei and setting off the silvery leaves of Eryngium acquaticum, whose thimble-size dusty blue flowers had turned a chalky gray.