It has bicolor flowers, white with red lips. Actually, the flowers are often quite different bloom to bloom even on a single branch. A few are entirely white, a few more are completely red, the majority about evenly divided half-white & half-red.

It blooms beginning May, is in richest bloom all summer, & will keep flowering deep into autumn. It's first year in our sun-garden, it increased in flowering through October. The second year it was fantastically flowery by May.

In winter, the leaves of 'Hot Lips' turn a dark wine-red. 'Hot Lips' in particular is semi-deciduous at best. If not cut back by February or March, shrub sages look increasingly awful the rest of spring.