My friend B. bought her house a little more than a year ago and has enthusiastically and wholeheartedly jumped into gardening and lawn work.  Where I do it because I have to, she does it because she loves getting her hands in the dirt and grooming seeds into lush, producing plants.  While she knows a lot, she sometimes needs help and is wishing for a garden signal.  Even without the signal there are answers,

Could I get salvia apiana to grow in my perennial herb garden? It’s only hardy to zone 7 and we’re zone 6. But I was thinking of putting it right up against the house.

And her gardening friends came through,

I was able to grow Salvia Divinorium and Salvia Lamiaceae in a south-facing bed against the wall of my house for the first two years I lived here. The bed was south-facing but shielded from some of the direct sun by the shadow of the house.

Sweet.  And.

Salvias are touchy here at best and you never know if they will keep going or not. I have several that are zoned for 7 that come back year after year, I have some that are zones 6 and 5 that died right off. The biggest key is drainage and you might be best off planting it in a pot with a cactus/succulent mix of soil and then moving the pot around and protecting it in the winter. Apiana will definitely want full sun.

Photo by Bludgeoner86 via Flickr Creative Commons.