The summer was a tale of three salvia gardens. Two were well established and a third, a newly planted xeric one with no access to water. Here in SW New Jersey we saw weather much like Richard's in North Carolina, but with a slightly different pattern. Rainfall here was well below average from the beginning of June all the way into September, and while we probably saw a little more rain, most of it came in spotty thunderstorms that struggled to maintain themselves. In the well watered gardens the microphyllas and greggii and their hybrids grew quite well. There was continuous bloom on Orange Door, Raspberry Delight, Wild Thing, Navaho Bright Red and a half dozen others. This surprised me a bit. Even at the xeric site the same plants were in continuous if light bloom right through to frost. The size of these xeric grown plants was about half the size of the irrigated ones. Maybe they would have grown more if they had been fed in mid summer, but because of the drought I was afraid to do so. Some other sages never did reach their full size. Involucrata made no attempt to put out a few mid summer blooms like it usually does. Waverly also waited until September. Indigo Spires was not nearly as vigorous as in other years. As the summer went on the guarantica Brazil slowly declined and by early fall were mere shadows of their July selves. The only guarantica to thrive was Van Remsen, it put on a show of a lifetime out in the vegetable garden in August. Mulberry Jam grew just fine, but since it was my first try for the hybrid I have no idea whether it was "normal" Salvia subrotunda did not like the drought at all. The patches that were watered show no ill effects and behaved as usual but attempts to grow them in drier leaner soil verged on failures. Under similar lean conditions the various coccinea cultivars did better. In the xeric beds bloom was delayed by as much as a month and the plants were smaller, but they did OK. Upright macrophylla was new to me so I don't know if an August bloom is late for this species and although the bloom was light the beauty of the flowers made up for that. Splendens Pink from Ginny Hunt didn't bloom until almost September and never seemed happy, I may not grow it again. Uliginosa was skimpy and late. My main patch at a nearby nature center suffered its second year of pretty much total deer destruction. You have to respect a deer which can eat that nasty stuff. The big and total failure of the year was praeclara. The plants hardly grew and by the look of the leaves suffered from some sort of disease. Whatever that disease was it did not spread to the nearby subrotunda. Chiapensis and buchananii grew OK I guess although I would have liked to see more flowers on the later and an earlier bloom on the former. Both were new to me so maybe their growth was normal.

Valencia Pride if you can get one.... But the Manila mango is propagated by LaVerne nursery near you and is a consistent hardy producer. LaVerne knows what will work in your climate Check this out--->>>> http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/azgard/msg0208015314470.html "Thanks for your inquiry. The Mango you purchased from Lowes is a seedling, a manilla seedling, fruit weighing approximately 7-12 ounces. This seedling will produce outstanding fruit. When you do get flowers, limit the number of fruit after pollination to 2-5 and be prepared to prop-up or support the fruit as they are forming and getting larger. Water deeply when watering and fertilize with a fruit tree type fertilizer once a month in the growing season (our label says longer between fertilizing) and your tree will perform. Need anything else, please let us know, Richard Wilson �" CEO La Verne Nursery Inc." Here is a link that might be useful: Valencia Pride

Meader is not self-fertile... many catalogs tout it as fruitful (and seedless) without a pollenizer... In some areas, and under some climatic conditions, Meader - and many other D.virginianas - may produce seedless fruits, in absence of a pollenizer. But...if you have a male in the vicinity, Meader - and others - will be fully-seeded. All the varieties you've listed are essentially 'female', and will not pollenize one another... other than the fact that some, from the Garretson/Early Golden family(like Meader) may occasionally sprout limbs producing staminate (male) blossoms that may provide pollenization for nearby females. I'm relatively to vaguely familiar with most of those you listed. Yates is top quality here; I-94 also very good. Year-in/year-out, Early Golden is hard to beat, and typically prevails in blind taste tests.

There's no way we could tell you until it fruits. But depending where you live and where you bought it from might help, since it is probably one of the few varieties commonly sold where you are. Do you remember if the label said it was an ornamental banana plant or if it's for eating?