Salvia Greggii 'Alba' X Salvia Micro. 'San Carlos Festival'

13 years ago

I have a raised bed with both Salvia Greggii 'Alba' and Salvia Microphylla 'San Carlos Festival'. I have had dozens and dozens of hybrid seedlings come up in the bed over the years but never a strait S. greggii or S. Microphylla. In nearby areas I have S. x 'Red Velvet', S. X 'Maraschino' and S. x 'Scarlet Spire' all of which re-seed a bit and appear to come through true. Do some salvia require cross polination and other don't????

John

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Comments (8)

rich_dufresne
13 years ago
Those seedlings might have the others as parents as well. Only DNA tests and growing the plants out will tell. A hint of parentage will come from when the sages are in bloom. If all five bloomed simultaneously, it will be tough.

One point to make is that the other three are all supposed to be hybrids, so there will be variable gradations, even if they were selfed. Crosses between collected species will generate the most dramatically different species. A strengthened case would be if all the alba/SCF crosses all are rather similar, with aspects of both parents. These will tend to look like one parent at one extreme of growth and temperature and the other at the other extreme.
robinmi_gw
13 years ago
Re San Carlos Festival, a lovely Salvia, I have always wondered if this has something else in it along with greggii and/or microphylla. Don't know what it does in USA but in the UK it is totally sterile, I have never found one seed. And, the arrangement of the inflorescence seems quite different from any other.
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hybridsage
13 years ago
Robin:
I have notived the same thing here also no seed etc... To me some of S "San Carlos Festival" looks like there is S.
darcyi involved (the flower and the foliage resebles darcyi
while the compactness looks like S. microphylla var grahamii).Just something I observed.
Art
rich_dufresne
13 years ago
San Carlos Festival was collected in the wild by the folks of Yucca-Do, if my memory serves me correctly.

For me, it is very tough, and seems to be capable of handling all combinations of heat vs cold with wet vs dry.
wardda
13 years ago
I agree, San Carlos Festival is the oldest microphylla in my garden, surviving in a bed where at least a dozen other microphylla and greggii cultivars failed to thrive. The only place it did not do well was when planted in totally barren dry conditions. It doesn't set lots of seed for me either, although it was a parent of one of the most vigorous and hardy seedlings ever to appear here.

I never know what to expect from new seedlings and that includes flower color, leaf type, hardiness or vigor. Most of them are so similar to the general profile of the sister species as to be unexceptional - shades of raspberry, red, or pink. I keep asking myself how Robin comes up with so many beauties.
robinmi_gw
13 years ago
Not all the "beauties" are mine, many have been bred by Dyson's Nursery in England, or by others who enjoy playing around with seeds! My personal favourites are S. x jamensis 'Peter Vidgeon', and S. 'Nuchi'.
wardda
13 years ago
I looked up Peter Vidgeon on your site but could not find the other one.
robinmi_gw
13 years ago
It is there.....as Salvia 'Nuchi', as it is not really a form of x jamensis. (Nuchi is a wonderful 90 year-old lady in Buenos Aires.)

Salvia Greggii 'Alba' X Salvia Micro. 'San Carlos Festival'

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rich_dufresne

robinmi_gw

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