Two winters ago I ordered some Polemoniums from a TN nursery. They sent me P. van-bruntiae, which I did not know at that point. I potted some up for a local native plant swap, and the auctioneer would not sell them because he said they were not Jacob's ladder! So, I brought them home and planted them. I am not sure if I still have them as there are so many Polemoniums in the area...I am not a neat gardener, and things "just grow" ...or not, as the case may be. Anyway, if I can identify them from the P. reptans when seeds start forming, maybe I can send you some.

Jacob's-ladder(Polemonium reptans var. reptans) Jacob's-ladder(Polemonium vanbruntiae)

I didn't think anyone could beat sguanzon but I got sunnysmiles51 seeds today 105 wants sent wow and she also sent seeds for everyone. I also got three shy acres seeds today everyones bags are bursting I am only waiting on 3 more queen of diamonds ilovefarac mkruby I'm not sure whats up with mkruby I'm going to try e-mailing her one more time before we get all the seeds in if I don't hear from her I will cross reference her seeds to everones lists like I'm doing with gardenwitches seeds.Patty

Salvias in Hawaii. I don't think I even knew the word . Oh, I knew it was a flower and sage you ate in sausage and poultry. The heavy red volcanic clay soil and 80" of rain didn't really give us an ideal location for the sages. Mexican sages had not made the jump into the trade. There were not many nurseries in Hawaii at the time and they were not very healthy or adventuresome businesses. One could just find piles of trimmings of any type of croton, hanging haliconia and discarded ginger plants thrown out on the street. All you had to do was stick them in the ground and everything would grow. There were so many other plants that people just gave each other or collected that buying plants wasn't practiced where I lived. Things have changed there. The choices of plants came from the tropics of the pacific and China. Culturally that is where the influences were. I was a serial renter so my gardens were planted and then left. It is strange to revisit them and to see the remnants still there. I never even ran into the Lepechinia hastas (false salvia) http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Fall/Detail/05321.html while out there in the mountains. I wonder where it is native in Hawaii. Yes My S. roemeriana is small. It grows very slowly. I guess we are in the walnut limestone that you have talk about. Many things grow small here. That has been an observation. I have seen S Englemani and S. texana growing in shallow white caliche based soils and screes out here and self sowing . I do not see them in the clay based field that I have. My neighbor has S. franinacia growing wild on her west facing slope of the Shingle hills but it is much smaller than the S.farinacea that is on the side of FM 12 in Wimberley and 1/3 the size of a clump growing on a high bank of river sand by the Pedernales River. I am judging them on a very droughty summer so it might be different on another year. I should pick up a book on the geology as pertaining to plant life. Would you have a good book to read on the subject?