Sounds good to me, Michele. I have a Salvia greggii alba x involucrata, courtesy of an Australian that sent me seed. It is similar to Mulberry Jam, but is a much denser shrub, and seems to have mini involucrata flower heads, with similar flowers to the ones in your photograph.

Salvia karwinskii and S. involucrata are related.

Hi Richard, thanks for the reply. I did not see a S. involucrata on the grounds, but there is an enormous [20 feet? with light pink flowers] S. karwinskii near these seedlings, which were right next to a large, red S. microphylla. Here is a photo of the flowers. Sorry about the quality; taken with an iPhone4. I believe they are more red than your hybrid, and than Brent's. The lower recurved lip is darker than the rest of the flower. This plant was setting some seed. One of my cuttings has new buds forming, so I could take a photo of that, if it's helpful. I will need to pinch them off to encourage rooting.

There were two seedlings, with the exact same smell [karwinskii-ish], yet one had purple undersides. Very cool. It hasn't flowered yet, but I will be back there, and the horticulturalist will send photos when it does.

Here is a comparison. The one with purple undersides has larger leaves, and darker stems. In both cases, the leaves are slightly fuzzy.

I have a strange seedling of Cristina Bugatti from Rolando which has the same purplish undersides, which I think came from the S. univerticillata parent. Does the latter grow in that garden as well?

http://www.robinssalvias.com/htms2/bugatti.htm

There are a lot of morphological oddities besides irregular leaf shape. It will be interesting to see if this plant breaks out of this as it grows.

Thanks for sharing these pictures Michelle.

These eventually hardier and or earlier flowering karwinskii derivatives are fascinating. At least for thse that cannot flower k.

I looked in vain for the older ones.

My Cristina Bugatti has more or less normalized, and is holding its own during botrytis season. I am hoping it will take off soon, and I will be propagating it, with hopes of getting the first few to botanic gardens and collectors in the southeastern USA.

I also am growing out five different S. cuatrecasana seedlings which are very variable and would like these tested as well.