Red Neck Girl forsythia sage (Salvia madrensis 'Red Neck Girl') features butter-yellow flowers highlighted by red to reddish-purple stems, growing to 7 feet from September to frost. It is native to elevations between 4,000 and 5,000 feet in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains in Mexico. This selection comes to us from Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery. Avent's sense of humor is well-known in the plant community, as evidenced by the cultivar name.

The genus Salvia comes from the Latin salveo, "I heal," and salvarae,"to heal," first used to describe species in this genus by the physician Pliny. More than 900 species can be found in a variety of environments from tropical through temperate in the Old and New Worlds. Species in this genus are distinguished by the presence of a single fertile anther cell positioned to deposit pollen on the backs of visiting bees.

The species within this genus are immensely valuable as bee food plants and to human society through these uses:

• Culinary—including chia (drink), seasoning, cakes, soups, vermouth, and liquors
• Oils—in paints, soaps, scents, and eau de cologne
• Ornamental—dozens of species and hundreds of cultivars
• Medical—in China, as treatment for heart disease