Hello Bryan! Trish too! Sounds like you two are doing well. I've been absent from the forum for awhile due to several reasons. I really wrecked my back last fall(ruptured my L5, S1 disk) and went through pyshical therapy for 4 months in order to be able to work this year. I have avoided surgery for the time being and so far, this planting season hasn't been too awfully painful. I've added some new woodies to my "already too large for one person to manage" field. I put in 100 Avalanche lilacs, 50 Ruby spice summersweet, 50 Arnold red honeysuckle, 50 Guincho purple elder, 100 Saugeana Chinese lilac, 50 Calicapra beautyberry, 20 Exochorda pearlsbush, 50 Fothergilla mount airy, 50 French pussy willow, 50 Charles Joly lilac, 50 Pres Grevy lilac, 50 chinese lilac sunday, 50 Asessippi Lilac, and 20 Seven-son flower. That field has now grown to 9 acres of woodies. I started it 5 years ago and I'll finally be able to harvest my snowball viburnum, cranberry viburnum, blue muffin viburnum, pee-gee hydrangea. I will also be able to harvest some lilacs; Sensation, Beauty of moscow, Wedgewood blue, Monge purple, Mount baker, and Pocahontas. Some of my baptisia crosses will flower for the first time this year as well, so I will finally see what the hybrids look like. The annuals are prety much the same as most with Suns, Zins and glads making up the bulk of the main event flowers. I should have about a 1/2 acre of butterfly milkeed this year. That orange always looks great with the purple hoary vervain and suns. I also have the rest of my natives to compliment the boquets. Due to my back injury, we didn't do nearly as many wreaths last year, hopefully this year I can stay injury free. Trish, We might be taking a late summer trip to Michigan. Where are you located and would you mind visitors? Nice to read all the info and see what people are up to again. It gets me amped up to get er' done! Take care, Steve

Well, I can add to everyone's excitement by noting that Salvia bucharica, found in Afghanistan and to the north and west, is the old world equivalent, with rose bracts and blue tubular flowers. It is in the section Schraderia, which includes a lovely Turkish species (S. hydrangea). These were once considered a separate genus. The equally elusive S. cadmica (yellow flowers) from Greece and Turkey also has large bracts. This is sometimes sold as Greek mountain tea. Searching this info has caused at least a momentary lusting for Turkish and Iranian sages, the second greatest area of Salvia development after Mexico. Alas, I have to leave these to arid area gardens like the Denver botanical Garden, which has done the best job of keeping Jim & Jenny Archibald's collections alive. Many of the collection areas are now too near Iraq and the Kurdish areas of Turkey. Dr. Ian Hedge of RBG Edinburgh told me of an unhappy incident with a Turkish army patrol which they came across by accident. This resulted in having the many exposed rolls of film of Salvias confiscated. Good luck finding anyone willing and able to collect in Iran, either.

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

Lucky you!