Very nice. Sorry I missed that one.

Karen, I hope to have more of this plant in the spring. I had it outside in pots and it sent runners out onto the ground and made new plants. Do you grow Salvia reptans? I noticed its true blue flowers on a plant growing in the JCRA today next to some bog sage (S. uglinosa). There is an even better example of S. reptans just outside the car gate at the arboretum. If you have it, can we trade one of my C. fragrans for a S. reptans?

Ralph, I've got S. reptans 'West Texas Form' out in the meadow border. (This is the more upright form of reptans.) I usually get a few seedlings and would love to trade one for C. fragrans in the spring.

karen- i think that has to be the salvia i was telling you about that has flowers like the s. sino. so pretty! very skinny amsonia-like leaves. so far mine is only a single stem and about a foot a bit more high.

Tammy, the leaves on S. reptans are so skinny that I had to get one of the staff at the arboretum to confirm that it was a Salvia to be sure. Its unusual shade of blue is exceptionally pretty growing amongst other flowering perennials in the Perennial Border at the arboretum. There is also a larger specimen just outside the gate to the parking lot.

yeah- i was telling karen i assumed it was an amsonia hubrectii or ciliata when i saw it this summer (didn't remember planting it, but that's what i do). anyhow, when it bloomed blue salvia flowers a few weeks ago, i was pleased and shocked! what a ncie surprise. not sure where i got it- probably either a swap or bb's.

I had forgotten about S. reptans when we talked, Tammy. It's way out in the meadow and I haven't been out there much this year. I think I brought some to my first swap, so maybe that's where you got it. I had the smallest plant tags on the planet back then, so no wonder it got lost.

Hi Ralph, thanks for getting the ID, and thanks again for the beautiful plant. I can't wait for it to make new plants so I can share with others!

i bet that's where i got it then karen! thanks for solving the mystery. your tags were tiny- but very cute. :) and i tend to lose tags anyhow, because i hate looking at them so i bury them. i like a little mystery in my life, so it's all good. lol.

Karen, I would love to trade a C. fragrans for one of your S. reptans seedlings. I just have potted about a half-dozen C. fragrans that had overgrown their parents pots, and will be bringing them in by the end of the month. By next spring's swap, I should have plenty for anyone who wants one.

I just got bog sage and S. pitcheri (blue sage). Is the reptans even bluer? Blue is my favorite color and there are few true blues in flowers. -Ais.

it's s deep true blue- duke blue, if you will, like guaranitica, but more blue than purple. bog sage is more of a sky/cerulean blue to my eyes. not familiar with pitcheri, but if it's true blue, i'll have to get some. where did you find it? i, too go ga ga over true blues in the garden- they harmonize and sparkle like nothing else. since you like blue ais, also try oxypetalum aka tweedia- it's nearly an aquamarine color- hard to place it's so strange, actually. and plumbago is the deep duke color, as well as salvia sinolensis (i think), lithodora, nigella and pulmonarias. for sky blue there are myosotis- both perennial and annual, virginia bluebells and the one cleradendrum. i'm also partial to day flower: commenilina, for that eye popping blue. i'm waiting for someone to start hybridizing it to make the flowers bigger. i let it seed into certain areas on purpose. ralph grew a clitoria or butterfly pea that's true blue, too.

Ralph, there's a reptans seedling out there now -- I'll dig it up for you in the spring. I didn't dig much out of the meadow for this year's swap because I didn't think they would transplant well after the stress of adapting to the drought.

Other good salvia blues include S. glechomaefolia, which has small blue flowers (similar to uliginosa) on a lax habit most of the summer and fall. Not hardy here but worth keeping over or replacing in the spring. I like it as a ground cover at the base of my big potted plants. S. cacaliaefolia is also very nice, but a shy bloomer for me. Then there are S. chionophylla, S. chamaedryoides, and S. patens, which are hardy. Salvia muirii, villosa, and thymoides are also wonderful blues, but I haven't been very succesful getting them through the winter, even indoors under lights.

My favorite nonsalvia blue is Cypella coelestis.

Ralph, I just stuck some cuttings of Brillantaisia subulugarica in water and it looks like they'll root easily -- another subtropical for next year's swap that might interest you.

karen- what a great list! i clipped it for future reference. i love that we can save clippings now. and i forgot about cypella. mine's gotten too much shade and stopped blooming- i need to move it to where it'll be happier. they really are stunning.