I have a question..
If we have damp winters and humid, and my salvia is not on a high elevated
and dry, sandy place..do I mulch it for the winter next year with cypress mulch
about 3 inches thick or just leave it unmulched?

I do not want to retain wet dirt under the mulch......and rot the salvia when the nights get down to 32 degrees..these are perennial for my zone 8..
I have had black blue salvia come back every year with no mulch around it..

My flower bed the water runs off it but it is clay like with black dirt ..but a heavy
dirt..not sandy..

your suggestion on to mulch or not to mulch perennials in my area where it is
damp in the flower bed and humid at times in the winter..zone 8?

I had read somewhere that up north that it can keep the ground drier under the mulch..
I just could not fathom that happening down south..in a heavy soil..
this is the flower bed..it looks much better normally in early summer before
the upper 90's and 100 degree heat ...arrives.

thanks
sheri /sheridragonfly

Sheri, it says your images failed to load, could you try to post your pictures again?

Salvia does like to dry out between waterings, but does fine down here in FL even through a wet summer because we have sandy, well draining soil. I do mulch my salvias, mostly to help keep the root zone a bit cooler.

I keep mulch around my salvia, it keeps the roots cool in summer and warm in winter ... but good drainage is a must.

well the bed does drain down hill..but we do not have sandy soil so I better not mulch them in winter..I will pull the mulch away from the center of the plant and one foot around each one..
thank you all for answering..
I am going to add some sandy soil to the hole when I plant the new salvias
and Black Kow compost and and some regular soil..
deep hole of it all..then add some lime on the top one inch for each salvia..
does that sound okay..?

Would you put cypress mulch down in the hole for added drainage
or how would the roots do around cypress mulch in the hole with the dirt?

I added more pictures and they do not seem to load..
I always have been able to load them on this site
but they will not now..

thanks sheri

Still no pictures...
Try previewing the post...

Please tell us what salvia you are growing.

At my house in the sand... plenty of mulch ensures that the stems root, and I get additional plants for the landscape.

In the clay garden in town... I can't recall the mulch ever being a problem... this recent cold winter... and the home owner's excessive cutting things back... may have been a problem, will know more in a month or two... but clay and mulch? It hasn't been a problem in previous winters.

Re: mulch keeping the soil dry? I've observed that effect as well... Mulch when the ground is wet, holds moisture... mulch when the ground is dry... stays dry.

Edit:
I would not add sand to the clay.
I would not add organic amendments to the planting hole.

The extension service has done experiments with adding organic amendments to planting holes, and found that they keep the roots wet in the winter... and dry them out ahead of everything else in the summer.

If you amend the entire bed... Different deal.

Adding sand to clay... is said to create concrete... Everybody tries it... Nobody reports success.

thanks for you reply..
I did preview each time and no pictures let me try again..

Sheridragonfly said:thanks for you reply..
I did preview each time and no pictures let me try again..

Hmmm...
Do you have a google account? or photobucket, or flikker? or facebook?

Many of the pics I post come from my blogs... they're already online... I just copy the link and bring it over here...
And use [img] code.

Edit:
Ok... checked your profile... went to your blog... no salvia...