Here Ellery These are all salvia van houtti I didn't plant any of them they all reseeded from last year

Ellery - I wonder if anyone else's Pineapple Sage is blooming yet?

Sarah - What beautiful pictures; that is good advertisement for anyone who wants to attract hummers. Thanks for posting.

Ruth

My pineapple sage isn't blooming yet but my Mexican bush sage is bloom nicely.

No blooms on either the pineapple or Mexican bush here in western NY. Last year I think my pineapple was blooming or at least setting buds by this time. Both plants are nice and green and bushy so I can't complain besides that my few babies that are left have more than enough plants to sustain them and then some.

Penny

I never had Van houtti reseed, that's really cool. And Ellery, the plants themselves certainly aren't hardy where you are. It has been several years since I grew this salvia. For some reason I have trouble overwinteriing this plant indoors, and I couldn't find any rooted cuttings this spring. It sure is a beauty.

Purple Majesty - This is the first year growing the plant for me. Unfortunately I didn't find some until mid July. The plants seem vigorous if a little lax and the blooms are outstanding, although by the time mine are really blooming well frost may have come. I'd love tho hear more details on when you planted them, how big they got, and when they started flowering well.

Lastly there are no signs of blooms on the pineapple or Mexican Bush Sages. Next year I'm resolved to do heavy pruning in May even though the plants will be in bloom. Mine weren't trimmed until July when they finally stopped flowering. This I think was a mistake.

Sara - If your Van Houttii set seed this year, would you do me a favor?

Got all of my salvias as small plants from Logee's, etc. in the spring and grew them on until they went into 12 inch pots - Purple Majesty and B&B were the least floppy. I agree that I should have pinched the pineapple sage and mexican bush more early in the spring, but they were very compact until August when they started to stretch out. Very cold, wet summer, and then suddenly a few weeks of intense heat, and now back to very cool. I don't think that I can use this year as one to predict what plants will do next year!

Thanks Ruth, I've been very lucky with salvia splendens vanhoutti it always reseeds this is my second year of not buying it. I will ask my neighbor to help me find the seeds I never know where to look then I will send you some ward.Purple majesty always blooms later for me usually late july or early August. Sarah

My 2 Pineapple sages haven't bloomed yet. The B&Bs have bloomed sporadically. s. splendens have done well. I would like to try Van houtti next year. I have 2 s. greggis-- "Lipstick" and "Autumn Sage Purple" they have also bloomed off and on. I also have some s. Caradonnas, that had almost quit blooming when the HBs arrived here. I don't think they are susposed to be "hummer" favs but I've seen them investigate these also. Of all these I think the hummers fed from the s. splendens most. Maybe cause they were in bloom more.

I took this picture yesterday the hummer was at the salvia oppositiflora That and splendens are very popular now along with the greggii and urica

Sarah - That is another beautiful salvia and hummer! It looks like she could climb inside of the bloom.

Ellery - I still have no buds or even the hint of buds on my pineapple sage. Salvia Blepharophylla is pretty much bloomed out at the moment, my fault for not deadheading. Salvia Buchananii, Patens, Greggii, Jamensis Dark Dancer, Microphylla, Lady in Red, Black & Blue and Hot Lips still continue to bloom strong for me and are used a lot by the hummers.

Ruth

Sarah, your photos are great!!! Linda

Thanks Ruth and Linda, My salvia blepharophylla is blooming now too as are the patens and buchananii and discolor This week my salvia reptans and azurea started blooming they are fabulous looking the only problem is a stupid native perennial sunflower is blooming in front of both so it blocks my view to see if the hummers use it.I usually let the splendens van houttii self seed but if I knew where they were I'd collect them to send to ward and anyone else. Sarah

Sarah...not to stray too far from the topic, but here's where to look for salvia seeds. If you look over the photo below, you'll see a couple of unopened flower buds indicated near the top of the pic. Below that I pointed out the calyx after the flower has dropped away. The red dots indicate where a (typically) single seed is to be found. When the calyx dries & turns brown, the seed is usually ripe and sometimes falls out easily. Harvest the dried calyxes carefully so as not to lose the seeds. I like to snip the flower stem and invert it into a brown paper lunch bag. Once the inverted stem is down in the bag, I rap the whole stem against the sides of the bag to knock out the seeds. Peek up inside the calyx to see if a seed still remains.

Hope this helps...you can always ask your neighbor to walk you thru the process.

Patrick

Don't you just love it, everyone with their hands out. Nice jobs on all the photos, Sara's filled me with greed for new plants. Thanks Sara, I was hoping to become a better person. Really nice Patrick, are the little dots the seeds. The only problem on my plants is the seeds are never there because the bumble bees do their work first.

Speaking of seeds and seedlings, an interesting sprout has popped up in the garden between a Black & Blue patch and a couple year old pineapple sage. It smells like pineapple but the stems aren't hairy and the leaves seem more narrow and not as fuzzy. Could this be the horrible spawn of unsafe .... (I'm afraid to use the word, because heaven knows what the link might be). Since it is less than a foot tall, its identity will probably be mystery until maybe next fall.

My salvias seem to be a tangled mess right now. B&B is still blooming their little buds off as are the various coccineas. THey have all grown so much that they have all grown over under and through each other. My azurea has started blooming but it got so big (over 5ft) that the storm blew it over so it is laying across everything else and the flowers are growing up from the mass. A hummer could live in that mess forever and never be seen. I can't wait for next year so I can spread everything out. I really had no idea all these plantz would get so big! My wild watermelon salvia is at least 4 ft tall and about 3 ft. wide, Cherry queen is about 3 and a half feet hight and I have a salvia that I thought was going to be Salvia coccinea 'Vermillion' but is flowering white that is over 5ft. tall. I guess it is a good thing that I am not a salvia snob or purest b/c it doesn't bother me in the least to have plantz that didn't come tru as long as the hummerz like them.

Penny

Thank you so much Patrick that's the clearest explanation I ever had! I am going to copy and paste your very easy to follow instructions and stick them in my "New Book of Salvias" by Betsy Clebsch
Ward I must warn you there were loads of honeybees on the two largest purple salvia splendens vanhouttii so I don't hold out much hope. I think I got about one or two and alot of unripe ones still inside I'm assumming they are because they are white. e-mail me your address and I will send you some.

It sounds like you have a guaranitica-elegans crossbreed in you garden I wonder what it will look like? a small flowered purple majesty lookalike that smells like pineapple? Sarah

A small purple majesty that smells like pineapple would be fine with me. I do enjoy having something to wait and wonder about. As to bumble bees, yes I know. In the years I grew vanhouttii I don't recall getting a single seed, and Black & Blue isn't much better.

Penny, my microphyllas are flopping all over the place. Currently the Wild Watermelons are almost flat on the ground and the San Carlos Festivals have split open. Maybe if woody growth survives the winter they will be more upright next year. The worst has been Raspberry Delight. The original plant in the big pot is bent way over and all 15 rooted cuttings in the veggie garden are the same. Raspberry Delight is a really cool plant, but I wish it would show some backbone. As to growing so big. Every year I overplant. They look so small in late May and I truly forget how big even three feet can be. Even the cuphea igneas are around 2 feet. There are yet again missing plants that were presumably swallowed by their neighbors.

September is for salvias and even at wave hill in New York Salvias rule I was there two years ago tomorow and their salvias were enormous and all over the place Here's their website

Here is a link that might be useful: Wave Hill

Ward my Wild Watermelon would probably be on the ground too except that one of the Penstemons and agastaches are underneath it and holding it up. At this point there isn't even enough room to weed that bed. I used to envy people who had full beds like this LOL! Now my neighbors are coming over here to see what I have that is growing like gangbusters. One neighbor told me she is going to have to pay me to water her plantz so they look like mine. I am not going to share with her because I don't want her to have any of my hummies LOL!

Ward you are so right about forgetting in spring how big these plantz can get by mid to late summr. There seems to be SOOOO MUCH empty space between everything in early spring that you start filling in and still think you are going to have empty pockets and then all of a sudden you are looking for more empty brown space! This year I am not cutting anything back or pulling stuff out. I am going to leave the overgrowth as is all winter in hopes that it will provide some extra protection for my tender salvias. In the spring I tried to plant the B&B's closer to the house with the hardier agastaches and penstemons in front. Now maybe with the extra stuff around and in front it will help them survive...keeping my fingers crossed.

Penny