Planting depth of Salvia spathacea
9 years ago
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9 years ago- 9 years ago
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Which Salvias did or did not bloom for you this autumn and winter
Comments (10)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....See MoreSalvia columbarae
Comments (4)Try all of them. S. spathacea will need shade, but you already know that. S. columbariae has a broad range outside of Calif., well beyond the Mediterranean precipitation regime, and it may do well. It's an annual, so it'll sleep out the winter. Look for Rich Dufresne's posts. He has lots of experience with growing Calif. salvias outside of Calif....See MoreWhat Salvia is blooming in your garden?
Comments (22)Salviakeeper: On Mar 11, 2010, the Salvia eremostachya in the Pinyon Crest area of Riverside Co. were just starting to bloom. In some places the air was pungent with the scent of the foliage. The plant in the photo is at 33.61379N, 116.41519W, 3301 ft. elev. +- 66 ft., close to Hwy 74. You can see it (and many others) from the road, if you know what to look for. But you shouldn't take your eyes off the road :-) The population of S. vaseyi further downhill is in a natural preserve. There's a tiny parking area off Hwy 74 (west side) for the preserve. It's a breeding area for desert bighorn sheep, and now there are signs posted saying the area is closed except for a small part of the year that doesn't include the blooming period. However, there is no physical barrier to entry. S. vaseyi are scattered on the slope south of the parking area. BTW, I forgot to mention that I also have photos in this forum of S. carduacea and S. sonomensis. Look for "Salvia [insert species] in California." I've looked at the Consortium of California Herbaria for localities of S. dorrii, S. mohavensis and S. funerea, but I would indeed be interested in your localities. A couple of years ago I looked in listed localities for S. mohavensis and S. dorrii in Joshua Tree N.P. I found one S. dorrii but not mohavenis. I know there are other places further north. WRT S. leucophylla, it occurs sparingly if at all in Riv. Co. Fires in Orange Co. swept through known populationsm, but I haven't gone there to look. There's a single record in Consortium and Calflora (same plant) in the Tierra Santa area of San Diego. I haven't seen the plant, but I get the impression it's a garden escape, since I've seen no indication of a population....See MoreSquare stem Salvia help
Comments (1)This sounds like a stem borer, a larval pest found more often on squash, cucumber, or other cucurbits. There isn't much that can be done except to be lucky to catch them early and excise the affected parts of the plants. Any leaves and stems above the infected site will quickly wilt and die....See More- 9 years ago
- 9 years ago
Gosh...I didn't even think of doing anything special.
Two came up yesterday and I think I see one cropping up in the cell to the left. Like I said, I'm just messing around so I just planted four seeds.
They are in ProMix HP with additional perlite, about 5:1 ratio. I've been spritzing them (3 full spritzes) once a day in a western window with additional light coming from 50 feet away in an eastern window. I keep the blinds on that one closed until 1pm or so (because I'd bake in my office), so I thought the western window was better as it is left open all day. My house is almost always at about 80 degrees. They're on a cookie pan, unheated...as I don't have a bottom heater.
My evening stock seeds germinated the day before the spathacea, and for what it's worth, they're already a tad etiolated. I took the whole spread outside today because of that....it's 90 something outside right now, though. I really want this heat to quit already!
- 9 years ago
- 9 years ago
Hi Rich,
No idea when it was harvested but I just received them about 10 days ago. So, to me, they were fresh, haha, though I am certain that's not what you were asking.
The two seedlings are growing nicely today. I moved them to the eastern window for the morning and will move them west for the afternoon, though I don't know how long I'll keep up with that. The two in one cell came up; the two in the other cell have not emerged yet.
- 9 years ago
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
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Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)Original Author