I bought a package of seeds labeled "Blue Bedder" Sage. This plant does NOT look like the picture on the front of the package. What is it?
Im guessing blue bedder is either Salvia patens or Salvia farinacea........yours is a Salvia im sure, I couldn't tell you which one though. I just had a quick search and indeed it should have been farinacea :D i like yours better.
Oscar: It is definitely a salvia, by the leaves' look and smell. However I wanted a tall dark blue spikey flower and these are not what I would call spikes. Here's a photo of the seed packet and what I hoped to have. Thanks for your help.
Your plant doesn't look like a Salvia to me but I could be wrong. The inflorescence doesn't seem right. I don't see exserted stamens like the Salvias usually have and the raceme is too blunt and heavily stacked with flowers. The inflorescence seems more like a Stachys to me. I grow around 25 or so different Salvias but I don't currently grow any Stachys. On the other hand, the leaves don't seem quite in line with most Stachys that I have seen. Other possibilities are Agastache (again with the stamens), monarda/monardella or more likely, given the promiscuousness of Salvia, some sort of hybrid. My first thought when I saw the flower color was some sort of Lepechinia but other than color there is not much resemblence there. So maybe expand your search to other genera in the family and you might have some luck. The flowers look really nice although the rest of the plant looks a little wild.
Thanks for the observations, clevelandi! I have 2 other salvias in my garden, Mexican bush sage and salvia May Night. The leaves on this plant are very similiar and have that "sagey" smell. But you are right the flowers just look completely different! I've looked up the stachys on google and can't find any that look like this plant, same with the Agastache. I guess I'll just enjoy it as it is!