A glimpse at gal’s garden...great!

Nice pic, thanks. Hopefully you can catch a pic of a hummer at it.

tj

"Hopefully you can catch a pic of a hummer at it."

LOL! That would probably involve too much time hanging around outside in unappealingly cold, wet weather than I am prepared to devote :-)) I did see one buzzing around one of the fuchsias the other day as I was on my way to somewhere else (no camera handy) and they do visit the feeders regularly.

This is one hanging out during a late winter snowstorm last year.

I plant pineapple sage every year, it is a nice aromatic annual foliage plant of shrubby proportions, and it tastes lovely with summer fruit. I rarely get to see a bloom -- frost does them in well before bloom time most years. It did bloom last year, though -- that red is fiery fantastic!

Very nice, GG!

How very nice to have some garden color and hummers this time of year!

I planted pineapple sage without fail every year, but this year, my one go to supplier did not carry it (covid?), and I couldn’t find it anywhere. And funny - last year (2019), it still didn’t bloom by October, and I just chucked it shortly after as it was the end of the season.

UPDATE!! Here we are again in December and my Golden Delicious pineapple sage has finally decided to push out a bloom spike!

I really don't understand this.....why so flippin' late?? With our unnaturally hot early June heat wave, I would have thought the plant would have gotten a decent headstart and produced something a bit earlier than its performance last year but that didn't seem to make any difference. I realize our cool PNW summers may not be to its best liking but surely nearly a week of triple digits in June might entice it to flower more in line with its September/October typical bloom period? I also try to maximize the heat factor by planting it in a container and placing it in a full sun position and with reflected heat from a concrete sidewalk.

Must be a photoperiod thing…

https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/photoperiod-and-irradiance-effects-on-salvia-elegans-s-greggii-an

tj

Very weird! Your plant is totally confused. Maybe all of the original cultivars came from 'down under'? Might have an idea from CA. Just checked and my Salvia greggii Lipstick is blooming its head off. lol

Gardengal, I was researching where Salvia elegans is endemic to, and it grows wild in southern Mexico and Guatemala, way high up in the mountains, between 6000 and 9000 ft., at the edges of forests. Down there it's a large perennial shrub. They prefer a very long growing season, almost year round, with mild temperatures I was thinking the same thing as you when I grew it here, "why won't it blast off with all the summer heat?" but it maintained a slow pace. Because the majority of Salvia species we all grow are annual, or tender perennials that we usually treat like annuals. I had assumed that S. elegans was something like a tender perennial sage that will bloom for a long time, like Amistad or Mexican Bush Sage. So the S. elegans needs a longer period before blooming, and it's fortunate that SOMETIMES🙏 it will bloom. To me it's a divine plant, the smell, the taste, and that flower color! I think I read that in zone 8 it will overwinter. It won't overwinter here. I read that it has many varieties and that Tangerine Sage is a variety. I've searched, but can't find anything about other varieties, only Tangerine. Has anybody ever grown the Tangerine variety of Salvia elegans. Does anyone have it overwinter?

I meant to say that the salvia still in bloom is Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips'. I am in zone 7a-8 I think. GG do I have the zone correct?

sps, you are in zone 8b :-)

We planted a Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' this year and what performer! Constant blooms, and it gets surprisingly big. will need to be moved to a new place before spring. Hopefully it survives, we are between zone 7a and 7b.