I wish you luck! The reason I do not buy the black and blue salvia is our zone. They are so beautiful but too expensive to grow an an annual. I am trying to get my caladium blushing bride to come back for me this year.

I had no luck or the the proper place/temperatures for the annual geraniums. I tried a few years. I gave up that chore. I am trying to grow them from seed but I do not have grow lights and this is challenging. They are under regular florescent lights. I am not able to move the lights so I have stacked boxes to get the seedlings closer.

I hope you let us know if you have been successful getting the salvia to sprout. Some of the salvias that aren't suited for our zones are just awesome. Annual salvias are one of my favorite and the best flowers for me. They last from spring well into fall for me. They are one of the last flowers to be pulled. I have winter sowed seeds for the last few years with great success.

Keep us posted please. :-)

Good luck and you know we have a plant photo tax around here if it works. :-)

Congrats! I've never tried to overwinter that, and of course it doesn't survive outside. So I only had it one time lol.

I don't always overwinter my geraniums but I do sometimes, and when I first read about the method I use, I thought it had to be a joke lol. I dig them up, knock the dirt off the roots, and hang them upside down from the basement rafters. The previous owners must have overwintered geraniums this way because I have a bunch of nails in the rafters all ready for me to hang my geraniums lol. I could absolutely not believe this method worked. But it did, like a charm.

:)
Dee

If it sprouts for you, I might buy some. I'm like Patti-too expensive for an annual. If it can be overwintered, however...

Several of my garage babies sprouted way too early in February, which really surprised me. Some are leggy now, but I'm bringing them into shade or morning sun when the temps permit.

Mine survived too! Aren't we lucky?

I have never tried to overwinter this, but after searching/reading on it, figured I'd give it try. I tried the paper bag method, in a tote with ever so slightly moist newspaper (open to air periodically, and also heeled some in in a long outdoors planter that I kept in my garage w/minimal lighting.

The ones in long planter did the best and wile leggy, are about a foot tall! Thinking I may prune them back (make cuttings?) and re pot soon. More than half made it. I think some may have dried out a bit too much.

Last year, I found out cuttings root very easily, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to do cuttings. Most likely, I'll wait to do that until after I get them repotted and get some 'healthy' regrowth, though.

Well, nothing has sprouted yet -- no fattening buds either, so things aren't looking too positive. It's only been about two weeks, though, so maybe in another week or two I'll see some signs of life. If nothing by a month, I doubt they made it. I was going to do cuttings but forgot about it in the fall. Sigh...

Well, okay -- unfortunately have to report back that they didn't make it. I unpotted to check the roots, and the tubers were mush. Sigh...

Salvias are some of the easier perennials to keep alive in a garage, as long as it doesn't go too far below 32F, and they are not too wet

It gets way below 32 in the garage up here at times during the winter.

Yeah I didn't know, some people have garages under a split level in their house that they have to keep above freezing because there are pipes above, etc. etc.

I use the basement which does not get much below 64. For one thing both the gas furnace and the electric dryer are in that room. But several still seem to have died despite efforts.

that's too warm for them to go dormant...here's an older thread with some useful info: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2148872/over-wintering-salvias-inside

davidrt28. I am also in Zone 7 so I appreciate your advice. I looked at that thread. I think that next year I'll take cuttings. But can you leave them in water all winter or is the idea to just grow a smaller potted plant to have in the spring.? I have to mention that the only one to survive down there was a 4 foot Guarantia Mexicana which actually bloomed a beautiful blue plume in the window in February. I put it in the garden yesterday looking raggedy and tired and gave it a gentle support so I hope it will perk up. The black and blue is buried deep in a heavy pot still in the basement. ( Cannot carry it without help) There is an Amistad with it . Both showing no signs of life , alas. I may lift them, put them in the dirt and see what happens. The ones that usually overwinter outside did not like the recent 14 below temps in Feb. A Texas one, quite common, a fuschia color. looks gone but seems to have shot a tiny seedling into the corner of its pot. I have Brenthurst a tall, pastel pink and Texas red that reliably reseed everywhere each year even in the lawn and the gravel !

I love salvias and recently discovered a mail order company in California: Flowers by the Sea, that has 900 varieties and excellent advice about each of them as well as histories, geographical origins, shade or sun, blooming times. It would make delightful reading even if one does not garden.