New flowers II

A purple-is Salvia this time, with only a few of this flower's mini-buds opened up.
Went mad and bought three of them, planted out in a more or less triangular bunch, so the end result would be a large swathe of colour, rather than three smaller spots scattered randomly around the garden.
Prefer the deeper purple and bright blue flavours, but none were available at the local nursery, and beggars can't be...
A first-world problem here - indeed, not even sure it warrants the problem tag - as the lavender colour not only looks quite smart in its own right, but it also makes for a bit of a change from the garden's usual colour diet of, well, let's be frank, purples and blues.
Comes with a pretty impressive pedigree, too. A prominent member of the mint family - rub the leaves to smell the family resemblance - it's the most common genus in the lamiaceae family, with the number of different species nudging the 1,000 mark. That's at the large end of species numbers.
Very handy plant to grow in this neck of the woods, as they are tough and resilient, drought tolerant, and once established, don't really need regular watering  - which has to appeal to all but the most avid of gardeners.
On top of all that, they generally have quite a long flowering season - from summer, through autumn, and for many species, well into (milder) winters - and will attract plenty of birds and bees in the process.
Hard to see a significant downside with the Salvias. You should cut them back after flowering finishes, to ensure you get bushier growth next season - but as a downside, that's more like nitpicking.
I read where many Salvias are (safely) edible, such as Salvia dorisiana, or Fruit Cup Sage; and Salvia elegans, or Pineapple Sage. Accordingly, you can find plenty of recipes using these Salvias.
Am yet to try any of these recipes - understand the taste profile is somewhere along the fruity mint-sage spectrum - but still prefer to enjoy my Salvias via the more traditional routes of vision and smell.
Eyes and noses rule!