Hi everyone ,this is from an old posting that i went thru,I also use apples to initiate spikes (when needed) works very well actually,as for other question raised,Vr splendens 'Major' is a line bred cultivar from the famous "Gulz" nursery ex Germany (they had the best of everything) this variety is quite big for a splendens almost a metre , very tall spike at least 80 centimetres if well grown. pale white/green background and big blocks of banded red/brown to allmost black, quite self fertile to and not very cold sensitive,in my book its the only splendens to breed from ,and you can get up to 4 pups in the centre,had approx 20 seedpods on mine last year all self pollinated,Splendens Variety splendens is the direct opposite,not worth the effort.Stitzelweller ,the plant was all the rage but was ousted in favour (by nurseries) for smaller types that packed in a box easier , the same happened to 'Juno' wich gave rise to other varieties. i have found that some plants can be self fertile one season and not the next, cultural or climatic ? or does a plant just want a rest ? finding plants of splendens 'major' for sale is not easy nowadays , i will post a picture when i get time to take photo. have found the older postings very interesting , cheers Jack

Wow, that tagetes was at least three times the size my biggest one ever got. What a show! Here in the lower Oakland hills I've got the ever-reliable (somewhat boring) euryops, along with limonium, plectranthus ciliatus, tons of roses, (even more boring) lantana, pelargoniums, evergreen iberis, passiflora, eryismum, and another almost perpetual bloomer, pink cestrum. The cool weather and intermittent rains have even brought the nasturtiums into bloom again.

mytime, Sorry to not follow up. Gardenweb was not forwarding responses to this post (and for a while all my posts) so I was not aware that anyone had responded to it. I had some bad luck propagating earlier this year and then got sidetracked. Fuchsia boliviana Alba cuttings started to root but some sort of fungus caused problems and killed them. The Correa cuttings I first tried did not root. I will start some new ones now, with bottom heat (which I did not use before). Pretty commonly even without bottom heat factored in a lot of plants propagate poorly in winter. So we'll see. I started a bunch of Deppea cuttings a week ago. That plant had some bug problems earlier in the year and I was reluctant to take a lot of cuttings until it fully recovered. I may or may not start new cuttings of the F. boliviana Alba soon; I'm not sure where that ranks on the list of things that I need/want to propagate. However, that plant has done really well and should produce a steady crop of berries in the near future. Here's a photo of the plant from about 10 days ago: And here's a closeup of the berries on one inflorescence: I find it amusing how the berries get long, and then get fat. So mytime, maybe I should contact you when things start to root. As far as the berries, I might try one batch of seeds, but in general I don't have a use for them. I guess I could eat them... If anyone wants a berry for postage (then they can clean out the seeds) I can send one for postage. They can get a bit soft when ripe, and the berry may end up smushed. I'm guessing that's not a problem. Andrea, thanks for the propagation advice. I do enjoy trying to see how many cuttings I can get from limited material. I didn't realize the stems can be split like that. If the seeds are easy, maybe I'll try some. I generally don't like growing things from tiny seeds, especially if they are easy to root. However I've never tried Fuchsias. I see the Fuchsia forum has no exchange site, so I'll mention it here. I'm looking for the variegated F. procumbens, which I believe goes by the name 'Mary Miller'. In trade, I have a lot of things, but only a few Fuchsias and none of them propagated at the moment. The other Fuchsias I have are the regular procumbens, denticulata, 'First Success' (F. paniculata x F. splendens'), F. x baccillaris and of course F. boliviana Alba. I may have access to F. splendens as well; my old plant went to a friends house in the area. Perhaps I'll try start a F. procumbens thread when my new F. procumbens opens another flower and repeat the question about the variegated cultivar. I thought I'd mention that an interesting source I've found locally for small inexpensive plants is Lone Pine Gardens, which is a wholesaler for succulents and bonsai plants. Their little Fuchsias are just a few dollars, and are often found in the bonsai section of nurseries (in N. California at least). I got 'First Success', procumbens, and x bacillaris from them. The plant on the right, of course, is Fuchsia 'First Success', which seems to be a really nice hybrid.

Cheryl, I'm originally from St. Pete and my folks are still there. S. vanhouttei and 'Paul' both grow very well for my dad as well, and over the past few years I've sent him a few cuttings of other species from my garden here in NC to try. He currently has a S. greggii x microphylla seedling from my garden that's looking good and was just starting to bloom two weeks ago. A S. mexicana seedling that I call 'Elise' was also looking good, with lots of new growth from the base and flower spikes opening. I don't know why you don't see a greater variety of salvias in the nurseries down there. I would think there'd be more interest in trialing them. My experience with vanhoutteii (esp 'Paul') seedlings is consistent with what Rich says about being mainly orange. I don't even think about buying orange cultivars of vanhoutteii any more, I'm acquiring so many of my own.