SUPER SALVIA'S - 2015

Oi you two stop it, we've got nothing like that around here

Our nearest market like that is an hours bus ride away in Ludlow ( if it's still there, it's been 2 yrs since I went there ).

 

Hi all, this is my first post to this forum and this seems like the perfect thread to ask my questions on!

Last year I bought 3 salvia amistad from b&q. They were lovely healthy plants and put on a al show until November! I was really looking forward to them for this season. Unfortunately, they were very late emerging - I was expecting them to be in flower in May as this is what I had read on the Internet - and they have not flowered yet.

Two of them put up a few shoots late May and have stuck at about 12 inches tall. The other one I thought was dead so I dug it up and then thought I'd give it a chance and potted it up and it's in my greenhouse and it came back to life.. not that it's done it any good as it's in the same condition as the others.. No flowers.

Am I expecting to much. They're watered on the same schedule as everything else, they've had a chicken poo feed to no effect. I've taken some cuttings in the hope of keeping them going till next year and they have haven well but still, no flowers!

What am I doing wrong?

 

Believing too much that you read on t'interweb

Sorry, time to be serious.
If you had lifted them and kept them in a heated greenhouse it is just about possible to have them blooming in May. I'm not sure where in the UK you are but I would lift Amistad in early November, chuck it in a pot and shove it in the shed/ garage or greenhouse for the winter. In early March I would put it in the greenhouse and maybe give it the most gentle of waterings (from the bottom).
Whilst they are fairly hardy winters can knock them quite hard so best treated as a tender Salvia in my opinion.

Welcome to the forum by the way

 

Salvia stolonifera.............


Flowers tend to be a bit sparse on it but it is hardy and a neat enough plant. I do like it though..............




Salvia miltiorrhiza is a real gem though. Grown from seed these are the first flowers................

 

Savia Microphylla shines like a beacon on a dull day like today



Salvia Dyson's Crimson

Salvia greggii "Stormy Pink". An Irish cutting from a vase of flowers in the ladies loo at Great Dixter.

Jenny

 

@Jenny namaste - these small flowered Salvia (S.gregii, S.microphylla and S. x jamensis) are truly fantastic performers aren't they!

 

I'm growing on 3 cuttings of Dysons Crimson and the 2 of the shocking pink one. My aim is to gradually pack them into the borders for easy maintenance and just put a few colourful easycare annuals in the gaps ,
Jenny

 

Makes sense to me.

 

So back in May - I planted on last years survivors into a big pot out the front of the house:

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Thats Royal Bumble, Hot Lips, African Sky, Shocking pink one I lost the label from & pineapple sage + the rogue osteospermum that was mislabelled..

Turned out OK!

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so for next year, I been potting on Salvia patens & p (something - label is blank) rose (supposed to be pink):

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Doesnt look like much now.. but just wait...

 

The microphylla and jamensis cultivars grow at such an impressive rate don't they!

Salvia patens get better year on year as the tubers grow. Could the p something be S.pratensis?

Anyway, Black and Blue is finally in bloom..................

 

Salvia patens is having a really good time this year....................


Salvia glutinosa......................


It is a bit of a thug though............

 

It is indeed ! I checked with the market plant lady today - salvia pratensis rose rhapsody - infact.

I also came home with Salvia sclarea 'Vatican White' - do I have enough yet ?

 

There are approximately a thousand species plus all the many cultivars and hybrids so in short - NO!

 

Salvia Amistad, love this one, currently having its second flush of flowers

 

A big thank you to @PeterS for sending me the tubers of Salvia atrocyanea which has just come into bloom.................


Thanks