Thanks! I love looking at your site! :o)
the other Robyn

Hi Robin,

It is great to hear off your success stories.I have just started the Salvia Mohavensis from seed, the leaves on this species stink.The seedling is growing in leaps and bounds, when I pot up to its final resting place, I will use gritty soil as you suggested.

Cheers Annette

Hi Robin,
I want to see your pictures, but when I go to your site, there is nothing to click on to see them. I see the red salvia and can click on it, but that's about it. Maybe this problem has happened to someone else and you know why.
Remy

Hi Remy,

It happened to me too. You need to have java downloaded to see the flowers.

Cheers Annette

Hi Remy,

Annette is right, you must have java enabled, this only takes a couple of minutes, if that.

Robin.

Thank you Robin. I'll ask my husband about it when he comes home.
Remy

oops, Thank you Annette too!

Hi Robin,
It's been awhile, but I'm back to tell you I did get my husband to install the java. I'm so glad I did. You really do have quite a site. I love looking at all the photos!
Remy

Remy,

Thanks for your nice comments.

After flowering, my Salvia funerea died! But at least I have seen it!

Robin.

Hi Robin,

I am up for the Salvia funerea challenge! When you prepared your soil to grow funerea, what proportion of sand to stones to other materials did you use? I read that funerea lives in soils that are limestone based so probably lime in the soil might help in survival?

Joseph

I just used a 50/50 mixture of normal seed compost and vermiculite. I think that seeds will germinate easily in any compost, provided it is fast-draining. Death-Valley type conditions would obviously be very helpful, somewhat difficult to achieve in the UK!

S. funerea actually flowered here within 2 months of sowing, I was thrilled, but sorry that the flowers were so tiny. Shortly after flowering the plants died.

BUT.....I was so delighted to see flowers for the first time. Never had any success with the smelly S. mohavensis, always germinated, but never flowered. Now I have a healthy seedling of S. summa, but expect that this will not be a success here.

Even with the abnormally warm and sunny spring here, no sign of any flowers on S. clevelandii or S. pachyphylla.
Grrrrr!!!

The warm spring has prompted rare Turkish species such as bracteata, albimaculata (this is stunning!), and aucheri to flower brilliantly!

Robin.

I sometimes see S. mohavensis while hiking in the Sierra foothills, but almost never see it in gardens or retail nurseries - maybe the smell deters people from what is a great desert plant.

Robin (or any other knowledgeable members), could you be a little more specific about your seed germinating mix for drought-loving salvias? You said 50/50 with vermiculite, is that better than perlite? What is in the compost mix - manure(type?), alfalfa meal, forest profucts, kelp, ...? How often do you water after inital germination?

I'm currently trying to germinate S. leucophylla, S. virdris, S. reptans, S. Africana-lutea, S. greggii and will be starting S. mellifera, S. dorii, and S. apiana soon in 6 packs and 4" plastic pots in my los Angeles backyard in full sun. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks - Marc

Thanks, Robin for your sage advice! I bought all the other xeric salvias Alplains offers so will try them to see how they go, and your advice will help to improve chances for success.

We are having an incredibly cold and very wet spring that happened after a short spell of warm weather. The warm weather woke up some of my salvias such as S. hians then the brutal hard freeze after the warm spell probably has killed it. I will keep watching the soil for signs of green...S. evansiana made it through so maybe S. hians will appear soon.

Hi Marc, I have S. reptans and S. pachyphylla growing out from seed now...we can compare notes. I have them growing in standard soil-less medium but have begun watering them less frequently now they have several true leaves. I almost overwatered a S. castanea into oblivion but it looks like it may survive now (thanks for that advice, Robin, too).

Joseph