Help with Pruning "Sizzling Salvias" please

[Dgiles]

I bought what the nursery call "Sizzling Salvia" for the first time. I had research them and knew that they do well in Alabama due to their heat tolerance. However I do not know how to prune them to get maximum blooming out of these annuals, which I wished were perineals, that are just so gorgeous! Help please. Do you prune what I can decribe as the tower after the shoots have came out and died? Or do you leave the tower bloom until it dies?

[rainbowgardener]

You don't really "prune" annuals. When the flower spike is finished (the petals will fade and start to fall off) clip that stem off below the flowering part, just above a leaf node. Usually there will be a couple little baby leaves starting at that point.

Removing the spent flowers is called "deadheading." It prevents the plant from setting seed. The life cycle of an annual is to grow, bloom, set seed, and die, in one growing season. If you don't let it set seed, it will keep producing more blooms, trying to be able to finish the cycle. Later in the season, if you want some of the seeds for next year, you can let a few flowers go.

[Dgiles]

Thank you. I deadhead on a normal bases my other flowers and normally only plant perineals so this is a new experience for me and a new plant. A friend from the UK calls them "Salvia Splendens". I just wasn't sure if I should wait to deadhead until the initial bloom (tower) withers or after the shoots or "splendens" have bloomed and feel off. By your response I'll wait until the initial bloom withers prior to deadheading. Per the nursery and what I've seen online these will bloom spring-summer so I want to get all I can out of them. I live in zone 7a-7b (I'm right on the boarder between these two zones). Thanks!! DG

[rainbowgardener]

salvia splendens is the scientific name of this ornamental sage, aka scarlet sage. (as opposed to salvia officinalis, culinary sage) The splendens is Latin for brilliant. It is descriptive, but is not a name for any particular part of the plant. What you call the "tower," we usually just call a flower spike. If you want to get technical, you can call it an inflorescence.

[Dgiles]

So the flower spike should be deadhead when. Here's a picture of a different one in my gardens, I placed them all around in different beds. Next time I will not I'll make a bed of just these to get the desired affects of beds I have seen now after learning their real names. You can see all the splendes have came out so do I wait until the spike looks bad? Or do I clip it off now...

[Dgiles]

Sorry picture didn't upload

[rainbowgardener]

I'm not sure what I'm looking at because I haven't seen them so green/white.

But when the flower is faded and a lot of the petals have dropped, clip it (farther down the stem)

[Dgiles]

Thank you. I have the flowers you showed as well. I got a message card tray and it came in all different colors