Super Salvias!

As I will soon have a fairly blank canvass to play with I've been thinking a lot about Salvia.
Then a thread by Stephenprudence kinda got onto them, so I decided to start a thread devoted to Salvia discussion.

My first contribution is a hybrid that occurred in the garden of an Australia collector - "Wendys Wish"




It's a prolific bloomer with a long flowering period. Grew to almost a metre and a half for me in one summer (in shade from about 1pm onwards) it was not hardy. Easy from cuttings, but I should point out that it is protected by PBR (just to cover my ass) with the proceeds going to the Make A Wish Foundation.

My absolute favourite is another tender one - Salvia discolor. Does anyone have any tips on how to strike cuttings of it?

Please feel free to join in with photos, links to recommended suppliers, questions or anything else Salvia!!

 

Gorgeous salvia longk.
Think my favourite has to be Salvia 'Sclarea' looks good all summer, another favourite is Salvia 'Forskaohlei' (never sure of the correct spelling of this one) as it grows well in sun or shade, seeds itself everywhere in our little wood.

 

Mmm still getting used to adding pictures somehow they appeared above the writing even though I added after .

 

Upload the picture, click the cursor where you want the photo and then add the image.

Salvia 'Forskaohlei' looks a gem Simbad!
The S.glutinosa that you sent me seeds for last year are coming on well, and the ones left outdoors have proven to be fully hardy!

(Not my photo. Found here;http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+0904+0488)

Salvia patens "Dots Delight" was another gem last year................

................not hardy though.

 

Good morning all GC Salviaphiles,
so glad I started viewing this thread. I now realise that Leucantha is a bit stressed 'cos am giving it too much water. Must remember this too when I plant out. At the back where it,s hot against the wall under the kitchen window. Still keep drooling at the rare Mexican Salvia "Hintonii" on Robins Salvias web site......
Jenny namaste

 

Ah, the black Salvia!


http://www.robinssalvias.com/blue/latest.shtm

Well worth a drool Jenny, but that is truly a rare one!

 

They can propogate from just about any plant material nowadays - so surely they can clone this and spread it around the globe for all of us to enjoy; If I win the lottery.........

 

SALVIA SPLENDENS

Thanks LongK for starting this thread. Your 'Dots Delight' is lovely - I have never seen it before. I have a feeling its going to be a good year for Salvias, if its going to be as hot as they say. I think there are many tender plants like Cosmos, Cleome and Salvias that do much better in warm summers.

I thought we should mention Salvia splendens - the Salvia that dare not speak its name - well amongst Salvia enthusiasts. S. splendens is the dumpy, little, red, over developed bedding Salvia so beloved of parks and other public places.


But the species, from which all the bedding Salvias have been bred, is quite different. It comes from Brazil, where it can grow to 9 feet tall. In this country you won't get more than about 4 to 5 feet. The picture above that I found on the internet shows that it can be both graceful and impressive.


The colour, like many Salvias, comes as much from the bracts as from the corolla, and is quite intense.


This shows it in my own garden. You can judge its height from the Eupatorium behind which usually reaches 6 feet.


Perhaps even lovelier is a pink version


Which makes quite a bushy plant.

 

please , what is the name of this lovely pink one?As I am a Salvia "newie" can you tell me how to get them as showy as these

thank you,
Jenny namaste

 

Hot Lips is my absolute favourite garden plant - it's a Salvia though don't know it's proper name x

 

Jenny - both the red and pink plants I showed are species (ie plants that occur in the wild) of S. splendens. They don't have cultivar names.

The red one is not on sale anywhere to my knowledge. I was given seeds by a friend, who was given them by someone in Brazil. Unfortunately I don't have any seeds to spare. Last summer was so cold that a number of my Salvias produced virtually no seed. I sowed all the few seeds that I did collect and now have three young plants that I hope will keep the strain going.

The pink one is probably even more unusual, being a varient on the red colour of the species. Unfortunately I have lost all my seeds and hence contact with this plant. However, seeds can be obtained from one place http://www.seedhunt.com/ which is in California. This is the only place that sells it to my knowledge.

Technically Salvia splendens is a tender perennial. However I haven't found that the plants do any good in the second year, so it is easiest to grow from seed each year.


But being a perennial, you can also take cuttings in the autumn. I have found that it is possible to have this plant in continuous flower for 12 months of the year. The picture above shows some cuttings in January in flower. I took the cuttings in October the previous year and propagated them in a light box. The cutting material came from the mother plant that was in flower. At first I cut off all the flower buds as any book will tell you to do. But the buds kept coming back with such persistance that I left them on. Consequently the cuttings were flowering at the same time as there were making roots. Above they are still in flower in January - with the mother plant on the left. And they continued to flower till the next October, when I took more cutting material (with buds).

I suspect that a plant flowers when it has certain hormones in it, and as it flowers it continues to produce these hormones. So when you take a cutting from a flowering plant, it will have these hormones and will try to flower. If you cut all the flower buds off, you lose the hormones and its ability to flower until the right season. But if you leave the flowers on, it will continus to flower. I have been able to do the same with S. coccinea and S. leucantha.

I didn't take any cuttings last winter because I was using my lightbox for other things (Brugmansia cuttings). So lost the pink one and nearly lost the red one.

Ellie - 'Hot Lips' is lovely. Its a Salvia microphylla. which is a small bush as you know. Strictly speaking no one is exactly sure of its parentage as it was a chance find in a garden in Mexico only a short while ago.

 

Wow great pictures everyone,I love the pink Salvia Splendens too Peter its gorgeous, very interesting information too
The glutinosa is very hardy longk been in my garden for quite a few years now and didn't even flinch in that last awful winter, have you noticed how strong the scent is? you can smell it all over the garden on a warm day, great close-ups

 

I had this beauty pop up in a packet of Plantworld mixed salvia seeds, only the one plant like this, sorry not a very good picture, and unfortunately it died in the cold winter, never set any seed so couldn't collect any,it grew to around 3ft with loads of branching stems, an amazing colour, picture doesn't do it justice, the huge leaves behind don't belong to this plant, would love to know what it is to grow it again, have had a google and thought it looked very like 'Barrelieri' ?

 

My little flowering Salvia Leucantha has a very interesting smell when I touch the leaves too. I am dreaming of a fine warm Summer's evening when I can partake of an Amontillado on the rocks on the patio next to my lovely perfumed Leucantha -aaaaaah

 

Sounds like heaven to me Jenny , just off for a sit outside myself, only with a cuppa tea though, can't start on the wine this early , the osmanthus and the skimmia are filling the garden with a lovely scent today, trouble is the dratted hayfevers started early this year.