Germinating from seed will work best if seed is treated with smoke residue or GA-3 (gibberellic acid). The smoke is impregnated on paper, and it is moistened and the wet paper is combined with the seed lot for treatment.

Once treated, the seed should be immediately sown, Plants will need sun, drainage, and alkaline soil conditions. Don't expect it to live for more than one season. It may be easier to buy a plant, at least until you can figure out its optimal growing conditions.

Salvia apiana is native to my area of so. Calif. From my observation, it grows naturally up to about 5000 ft. elev. (Palomar Mtn.), maybe a bit higher in places. Snow is OK, but prolonged freezing is probably fatal. Where I live (Anza, CA), at about 4000 ft., winter nights frequently drop below freezing, but days are always above freezing, usually in the 50s. When I lived lower (about 1100 ft), in Temecula, I propagated a large batch of S. apiana from seed, most of which I ended up selling at a native plant fair. For my first batch, I used cold stratifcation, but later on I decided it was a waste of time. There's an old thread in GW from (I think) 2007, with my photos and details of what I did. I also grew one cutting, but it was several weeks before I saw roots. Later on, I got better at growing from cuttings (mostly S. clevelandii and S. "Dara's Choice," no success with S. pachyphylla). In nature, the primary growing season for S. apiana is late fall through spring. They are adapted to the Mediterranean climate of much of Calif., with wet winters and dry summers. They need good drainage. Also, they like lots of sun. They can't get too much sun.

This post was edited by ccroulet on Sun, Jan 25, 15 at 14:13

Have given up with this Salvia in the UK. It grows well, but attracts every single aphid, spidermite, and slugs. Also I find the smell to be quite vile!

I also think the smell is vile. I don't understand why someone would willingly burn this stuff in their own home.

This is a new plant to me, so thanks for your responses. Sounds like this is more involved that what I am use to, but I'm still interested in attempting a try at growing it.

Check out Las Pilitas Nursery for California sages.

As to the odor, one of the terpene constituents is camphor. The main one is 1,8-cineole

Here is a link that might be useful: Composition of the essential oil of White sage, Salvia apiana

I grow it here in the southern Arizona mountains. S. apiana doesn't like cold wet feet, so wet cold winters may not be suitable, but then again my growing conditions are not the best. I am on the foothills of a large mtn range at 4500 ft, we get 10-20 inch of rain in the summer monsoon, 3-6 inches in the winter maybe. Nights Dec-Feb will go to around 30-40, days 50-70 300+ sunny days. My soil has perfect drainage on a slope (bajada), and it likes growing with S. clevelandii. If it wasn't for perfect drainage our hot sometimes wet summers may be disastrous.

ccrowlets, details of propagation of S. apiana is a classic if you can't find it I may have it buried somewhere on my laptop.

Mexican poppy, Eschscholtzia mexicana, and yellow evening primrose, Oenothera primiveris, are up and blooming and a few lupines.

I have not had luck with it here in Central Texas on a sloping limestone hill . I think my dry winter followed by a dry summer did it in. Then a wet summer did the second one in. Texas is so variable in its weather. One year we had almost 60 inches and the next we had 5".