The first question is which sages from High Country did you order?

I've kept sage cuttings under lights in the basement for some years now and mostly successfully. My success with Agastaches has been much more mixed; they seem to hate being indoors and those that survive are never happy. I find it better to get ahead of the game and root cuttings from vigorous spring growth. Those cuttings are usually ready by about July 1st and in bloom by sometime in August. Some of High Country's agastaches are quite hardy here at the edge of zone 6 & 7 - especially X Desert Sunrise and its parent rupestris.

Again, I am interested in which sages you are growing? The ones from High Country have all proved hardy in my sandy soil.

Well, I purchased most of the tender perennial types at various garden centers but added Salvia greggii "wild Thing" and Salvia Jurisicii "Blue". I also added agastache x rupestris and the var Orange Flare plus zauschneria latifolia and z. arizonica. I wish I could remember the others purchased locally other than "Black and Blue" and "Hot Lips", Mexican sage. Probably 10 plants that I don't recall the names of

I do not have sandy soil. I have added granite grit to my silty loam but am not convinced that I have enough there to make the soil optimum for these plants year round. I'm zone 6, but not close enough to zone 7 to be a transition zone.

I found that my agastaches/zauchneria sulked for quite a while when I planted them at the end of May and really didn't get going until August.

So, do you think it is too late with the agastache? What about a cold frame approach?

Cold frames are great, but are labor intensive in terms of temperature control and venting. Twice or more a day, it is necessary to adjust the sashes, especially on clear days with wind (Arctic air masses). Cold frames are much more forgiving in cloudy weather.

I use tarps to stop the flow of heat in either direction, especially at night. My cold frames have 8 x 4 feet sashes and I have 3/4 blue foam or aluminized yellow foam (wall insulation)cut to fit in the sash frames for the coldest nights. I have kept tropicals alive in such cold frames.

A radio frequency thermometer sensor inside the cold frame is a good idea, especially if the receiver has an alarm for too cold or too hot.

Send me an email if you want construction details. I hope to have them available on my web site in a few months.

While I don't have a cold frame, several of my friends do, and I can attest to their value. Some of your plants may survive in the ground anyway, and that is something you won't know until spring. Salvia greggii "Wild Thing" seems to be a very durable plant, which is good, because it is one of my favorite greggii. Black & Blue has been here in the garden for about a decade. I had to try it in several different spots before I found a few where it would perennialize. Most years it gets fall leaves piled on top of the uncut stems (wait until the plants are truly dormant)and has returned in good health. This method might not work if you have heavy soil or a large vole population.

For all I know the jury is still out of Zauschneria in the east. I have latifilia v. etteri growing and blooming although it is still very small. How has it done for you? Several friends report being able to keep another species of the genus alive but also report it did not flower.

Hmm,
I don't have voles, but chipmunks sure seem to have tunnels in my xeriscape bed!
THe zausch are very sprawl-y, prostrate almost-- but are quite floriforous.
I tried to put in a URL to some pics but it was rejected. I haven't figured out why yet.

What about putting a modified "cold frame" around the entire bed? I thought I read somewhere that the western salvias would rather be mulched with grit than plant materials. I don't know--it's such a mix of hardy and non-hardy at this point!

I am zone 6a and have Agastache cana 'Heather Queen' that overwintered last year with no problem. I have added 2 A.rupestris this year and A.Mearnsii this year and am hoping to have success with them also. I have read that you should not cut the plants back before winter, as doing so would allow moisture to enter through the stems and cause crown rot. Also no mulching over. I did follow that advice last year and will again this year.
I am going to try to overwinter my S.Guaranitica 'Black and Blue' by digging and storing one in my attic or my garden shed, and leaving one in the ground piled high with mulch. Hope at least one method works! I wanted to collect seeds from them, but could not find them no matter how hard I tried!

Wow, someone else who grows mearnsii. It is a very good butterfly agastache and came through our recent wet winter just fine. Hopefully yours will make it too.

I was not real happy with the shades of orange I grew from seed , the flowers werent very big, not as big as I hoped they would be. Are all of the agastache flowers small? I have been interested in desert sunrise , rupestris types etc. Do any of those types have larger flowers? I really liked the penstemons and plan on having those again . I also fell in love with my greggi magenta which I just happened across and planted, but it didnt do well at first , but later when I deadheaded it came back with a strong flush of bloom and is still flowering. I will try overwintering all of these.

None of the agastaches have particularly large flowers - Tutti Frutti seems bigger than most and so does Red Fortune. You also might want to try the white greggii which is sometimes listed for the warmer end of zone 5. If I lived in an area where they weren't hardy the question I'd ask is which greggii types are the most vigorous and quick to bloom. My own experience isn't wide enough to answer that question so maybe someone else will comment. You might also look at the microphyllas. In my gardens they tend to outgrow most of the greggiis and some like Orange Door and La Trinidad bloomed well right through the summer.

Wild Watermelon is one of the hardiest microphyllas, and Furman's Red one of the greggiis. The former is hardy in the upper Susquehanna River valley, I believe.

In the garden behind my house a Wild Watermelon has not proved to be as hardy as the patch of San Carlos Festival with which is shares the bed. Perhaps I'll try it in another spot and see how it does.

I realize it's been 9 years! but I was happy to find this post. I took cuttings in early autumn from agastaches (Black Adder) in the hopes of getting a head start on some new plants for Spring. They've done great in a sunny window, have grown considerable alreaday and have been flowering. Am trying to find whether I should be moving them to my garage so they have some dormancy before Spring. Can you tell me what you ended up doing and whether it was successful?