Salvias in containers, what are your experiences?

It's strange, slugs really seem to go for some nemorosas to the point of almost destroying the plant, I had a similar experience with my nemorosa 'Blue Marvel' last year!

 

Slugs love Salvias in pots that have died down over Winter but are still undercover. Favourite are Patens. They 'mow' the new shoots as they come through! It has one positive point in that this action produces more shoots !!! Obviously once you appreciate there are slugs about you search them out!!! I've got one pot of patens thus affected which is now tremendous! I'm going to pot it on and will also take a few as cuttings to go with some last year seeds I'm planting as all my "left outdoors" Patens have failed this year!?! Must have been moisture?

 

Garden a sea of red and pink varieties, Hot Lips and Jezebel both red now, Ñeon and Cero potosi both pink. Will photograph once the wind dies down!! Nacht vlinder and Midnight, both dark purple, Black and Blue, guess! XAVIER bluish red.
Some of my pot salvias were not cut down so have grown up quickly! So either leave them and let them flower but become leggy or cut them down and take cuttings but delay flowering! Need to be quicker off the mark!

 

Re Red Salvias. Most of mine seem to be Red/Pink. Yes I've got a few Blue and Purple but are Salvias generally Red?? Even my Hotlips are red at the moment!!!

 

As I previously said my garden seems full of predominately red and pink Salvias. Managed a pick of the two 'regulars' from seed, NEON the stunning pink, and JEZEBEL, the strong red, large flower.

 

@NigelJ
I put this one up amonth or so back when it was just a mass of leaves. I can't remember planting it.
It has now produced flower which are obviously a Salvia type.
Please, have you any idea what it is please ?
Jenny namaste

 

@NigelJ ...just had a lightbulb moment.
I thinks it's a rogue Salvia Patens bulb that has overwintered in the big pot and decided to come back to life for Summer 2023 .
Either Oxford or Cambridge ?
Jenny namaste

 

Yes Oxford or just Patens to me! Look out for seeds in a couple of weeks if you don't dead head!! My salvias are producing seed just now so perhaps I should start planting them!!

 

Just made a discovery. Had what I thought was the dark blue Patens (mentioned in an earlier post) in a pot overwintering in cold greenhouse. Well its flowered and was Cambridge Blue colour!! Thought I'd lost Camb Blue, ...... suddenly realised it was in fact one of these 'new' varieties grown from saved seed!! I think it was called Beyond Blue I think?? Colour was Cambridge but inflorescence shorter (now at least!) This was the plant that the slugs 'mowed' in the Spring!!!

 

Not wanting to grow in containers but I'm wondering if anyone has tried growing Salvia viridis or Clary as a biennial, I seem to remember doing this a long time ago when I hadn't got a clue what I was doing and the plants were amazing.
Maybe my memory is playing tricks, as I bought a packet of seed and it just states sowing in spring to flower the same year.

I've tried that and not ended up with anything other than very weak spindly plants.

 

Re: cuttings
Generally, in my experience, majority are easy. Even accidentally torn offshoots placed in water, "for when I can take cuttings" often start rooting in a few days, and can then be cut down and potted on!! I can often get my usual 3 cuttings per pot, in this way. I've discovered a set of pots which come with a transparent plastic dome. These are great for cuttings and amazingly push off the dome when they root and start to grow! The pots are also great for seed sowing as often you only get half a dozen seeds from a plant. Obviously if you keep collecting and ģet more seed then the quarter sized tray is best. The advantage with the pots is that, particularly in recent hot weather, I'm able to keep seeds damp because of the dome!

 

Royal Bumble.

 

What a great plant!! Wish I could produce a plant like that!
Did you grow it from seed?
Or did you just do a very good job of taking out growing buds?

 

Salvias doing well this year again. The hardy ones just sped up from the ground but as I've said earlier tend to be mainly reds and pinks and mixtures of those and whites!!
However Blue is the other Salvia colour. Patens in particular. The darker colour (oxford) is my favourite particularly the 'giant' (jamoto ..... or similar!!) However I've got some similar blues (Black and Bloom, though have another, Black and Blue) Also the light blue which was Cambridge Blue. Not quite as hard as the Patens and I lost them all but had some seeds!! However I bought Beyond Blue from the Raven womans site, excellent, and grew it on in Winter conservatory. Got some seeds but masses of cuttings which I take in threes and simply pot on. This year I planted 9 cuttings in a big pot in front of another pot with Black and Bloom!!