I've given S. greggii hybrids a couple of tries here in the northern part of zone 6, and had none overwinter, though I've gotten other supposedly tender Salvias to make it for at least a few seasons. High Country Gardens has a lot of interesting stuff potentially worth experimenting with, but in general I'd add at least a zone to their projected hardiness ratings (i.e. with plants they describe as hardy to zone 5, I'd expect survival only in zone 6 or above as a general rule). Prolonged cold wet weather in the Midwest and Northeast and damp winter soils are tougher on perennial survival than the conditions which apparently prevail in much of the Rocky Mountain West.

If you use the pollen from a virused bulb you run the risk of spreading the virus to a healthy plant. But, you can use a virused plant for seedpods. If you put pollen from a healthy plant onto a virused plant the experts say the seeds will be fine. I have some seedlings from about 3 years ago: A virused Tangellino x a healthy Blossom Peacock. These seedlings have had their leaves for the better part of 3 years now and no sign of virus. I made this cross before I knew that Tangellino was virused and to this day, my one and only (aside from offsets) Blossom Peacock is still healthy even though I didn't know enough to take precautions. In those days I only dabbed pollen on once and may very well have used my finger so maybe that's why it didn't spread. I also have a couple of crosses from a virused Estrella x a large noid white (which I swiped the pollen from a nursery so I have no idea to the health of that bulb) and virused Estrella x a healthy Fairy Tale. All seedlings look fine. I'm sure you can mate two virused plants and they seeds will be fine also. The bottom line is you're better off not trying to hybridize with virused plants, but sometimes if you have a rare plant you might want to try. If anyone out there has grown virused seedlings from seeds that have one virused parent then please let us know. Donna P.S. One more thing to keep in mind.. when you are dabbing pollen on a virused bulb, if you use a Q-tip as I do.. only stick the Q-tip in the bag of pollen ONCE and then dab your plant and then THROW the Q-tip away. If you dab again use a clean Q-tip each time..DO NOT dip that Q-tip back in bag of pollen or you run the risk of contaminating the rest of the pollen. And Eric, make sure you take the time to do as Kristi suggests and do a search on this forum for information on this virus. You'll find a lot of interesting reading and see that some of us can get really hot under the collar over this important subject. You need to educate yourself since you are putting a lot of time, effort, and money into your new hobby. Everyone should be aware!!

I bought one from Home Depot yesterday. It says it is a salvia greggi with another name: salvia de otono (spelling?). Is anyone familiar with this varitey? It is in a one gallon pot with 2 plants in it. One of them has red flowers and the other one has white but the structures and the leaves on the two plants look alike. Is that normal? By the way, it has a little fragrance.

All of my Salvias have been slow to bloom this summer, after a fast start because of the warm spring. Maybe the current weather patterns have fooled them into thinking they need to bloom later in the season. This has happened before. As partial conformation of that, I took some Salvia cuttings at Tony Avent's Plant Delights on August 4, and again last weekend. That was on account of the fact that they just sat there and did not root in the high 80s to low 90's weather. When I got back to visit his trial garden, some of the Salvia specimens had suffered, probably a residual effect of the ten day 100 degree spell. I've noticed from posts in the past that this is not just a North Carolina phenomenon, but seems to involve most of the USA. Maybe I should start another thread to poll everyone else on this subject.