Thanks for all you do Kermit!

I installed my mail order plants today with great expectations for spectacular shows from them all.

Here are the three plants. Top to bottom: Salvia regla 'Huntington Gardens Form', Salvia 'Amistad' and Salvia cardiophylla.

Here are the three plants in more close views.

S. regla 'Huntington Gardens Form'



Salvia 'Amistad'



Salvia cardiophylla (It has flower buds!!)

Joesph,

Love the beautiful color of the Salvia regla 'Huntington Gardens Form' flower bud!

As usual, wonderful and healthy plants from Kermit!

I always cut my flower buds/flowers off when planting/potting them, so the plants put forth their energy into making roots and getting settled in.

Love your potting mix! What brand do you use? Or, do you make your own? If so, what do you use?

Thank you for your kind comments, Marilyn.

I have used the same potting medium for many years. That is, I do not dump it each year. I practice minimal till gardening and only dig into the pot deep enough to install the new plant. Every year I add life to the soil using compost. Doing this has made the soil look quite nice.

Joseph,

That's what I do too.

Your potting mix looks really good! (not to eat, however )

This year I have been infusing applications of worm poop tea into the soil. The plants seemingly love it.

Joseph, very interesting about the "worm poop tea". This sounds like manure tea, which I believe uses cow maure and is supposed to be excellent for the plants. If I ever start growing salvias in pots, I have you and Marilyn as my guides, depending on whether or not the plant requires "rich" or "lean". Thanks for all the good info.

I've seen Worm Poop Tea at Home Depot, but seemed a little pricy for worm poo... was like $8 for a 16ounce bottle if I remember correctly. I have lots & lots of wormies in my front yard now. A few years ago I completely & utterly mulched my entire front yard and the following year, found that I had a gazillion worms in the yard due to the mulch decomposing. Makes a HUGE HUGE HUGE difference in my Colorado clay soil!

I use Eisenia foetida Red Wiggler composting worms in a worm bin. So I grow my own worm poop and make my own worm poop tea. It's called Teaming with Microbes hahaha.

Thanks for the info, Kermit!

Your new plants look great, Joseph!
I've given plants worm poop or worm poop tea and I agree that they seem to love it. Worm poop tea is wonderful for seedlings especially since it doesn't burn and the seedlings really jump in growth after application.

Here is a most interesting article on vermicomposting ( making your own worm poop tea) by Dave. It tells you exactly how to do it - complete with photos.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/d...

That's an *awesome* article, Ann! I must print it out to read on the bus.

Danita, good to hear about your success with the worm poop tea. My family laughs at me but we all know it's a good thing to use this material.

Oh, another advantage is that worm poo tea doesn't smell much when used in the house. I try to stay organic on veggies and fish emulsion is no fun to use on the seedlings in the house...pewwwww!

flaflwrgrl said:Here is a most interesting article on vermicomposting ( making your own worm poop tea) by Dave. It tells you exactly how to do it - complete with photos.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/d...

Ann,

Thanks so much for posting this link!

YVW y'all. Be sure & give Dave a thumbs up on his article.

I have to get the time to read it, but I sure will (read and give a )

Alas, my Salvia przewalskii couldn't take the very wet spring and seems to have died. Such is life.

I could not resist and bought a Salvia 'Madeline' from Bluestone Perennials. I had to see the deep blue bicolored flowers in person!

I got one of those 'Madeline' in a gallon pot at a local garden center last year and never got around to planting it. It bloomed while it was sitting on our front porch. You'll love the colors (bitone) of the flowers!

My S. cardiophylla plant made its first flower yesterday. I unfortunately was not able to capture it in a photo. There will be plenty more photo opportunities with this one. It is a cute pale blue flower, quite nice.