Today's Salvias of the Day is Salvia (Salvia 'Amistad').

This plant can be found in the ATP Plant Database at:
Salvia 'Amistad' .

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Salvia 'Amistad'

This is a beautiful monster of a salvia, nonstop flowers on a shrub as tall as me. And it made it through a winter that had a low of 11 degrees and came back from its roots. Beautiful hummingbird and butterfly magnet. Rarely needs water, no fertilizer except compost in fall and spring. A tough performer.

Amistad has been a very good performer. I have it in pots and overwinter it in my garage . Easy to propagate. Here's a pic of my starts and full grown one.

Duane

Wonderful pics! What is the red one in the third pic?

Oh my absolute favorite!! @duane 456 thanks for sharing about cuttings- I have been wanting to try that. So is it u heated garage? Do you root them in just water or use rooting hormone and potting mix. They are definitely worth buying as annuals but it would be nice to not have to buy them every year since I plant 3 of them. My pic is a macro of a bloom. Amistad's blooms are the most exquisite purple, which is my favorite color. I agree the whole plant is exquisite!!

I forgot to add that I love that Salvia Amistad is also known as Friendship Sage- apparently that is what the word Amistad means. I feel like all of you fellow gardening lovers are friends!

The salvia in the third pic is Yvonnes. I've grow that one every year saving the seeds from plants. It is a slow starter for me in Oregon. Doesn't get warm here until July usually. Looks great from mid July to Oct.
Judy- my garage is unheated but I'm also in zone 8. So keep that in mind. I try to not let my garage get below freezing because I have other plants in there, mostly brugs. I have a thermometer in the garage so if it is getting too cold, I open the door to my house and let some warm air in there for awhile (when my wife isn't watching )
As far as propagating goes---Here's what has worked for me
1.-I use one those opague/clear storage bins (mine's 14 inches high 20 inches long and 16 inches wide) and turn it upside down with no lid. Just put it on the ground in a shaded area.
2.-I use those 12 inch plastic drinking cups and fill with potting soil, with drainage holes, with added perlite for really good drainage.
3.-Cut a good specimen from host plant. Strip leaves at the bottom exposing one or two nodes. Cut flower off if it is flowering. I like mine about 6 inches high and not much higher than that if possible. I just cut it to the height I like, or use the other part for another start.
4.- put bottom end in the cup. water heavily with watering can until soil is thoroughly saturated.
5.- I can get about six starts under my bin. I also put a pan of water under the bin to help keep things moist under there.
6.- HERE'S THE KEY I THINK---spritz the leaves with a light mist as often as you can especially when it's hot. I try to do mine twice a day, sometimes I forget and just do it once a day. I do this for 2-3 weeks until I see new growth. I gradually expose them to more sunlight and repot to bigger pot when they look like there really going to take off.

This process has worked on Salvia "hot lips', amistad, and I'm currently trying black and blue and a few agastaches.
It's getting pretty late in the year to get things started and survive the winter in my opinion but I may be wrong. If you are going to try this I'd start yesterday . I've done this in spring, middle of summer, and the currant tries were started about one week ago.

Duane thank you for those very detailed instructions. My garage is detached and with my zone I don't think that would work. I know there are other ways. Will do some more research. Your "Yvonne's" is also beautiful. I see it is in the database here. This may be a silly question but when you bring them into garage overwinter, do you use a light on them? I am a real beginner at this stuff and have done some reading but there is a lot I do not know.

jg0613 said:I forgot to add that I love that Salvia Amistad is also known as Friendship Sage- apparently that is what the word Amistad means. I feel like all of you fellow gardening lovers are friends!

It is a wonderful Salvia and a 'must have'.

From my comment I've posted on Amistad Salvia 'Amistad'

Rolando Uria of the University of Buenos Aries discovered this wonderful Salvia in 2005 at a plant show in Argentina and wanted to share it with everybody. Amistad is Spanish for friendship, hence the common name of Friendship Salvia.

@duane456

Where did you get your Yvonne Salvia plants and/or seeds originally? I've been wanting to grow that one for years.

Marilyn-- I believe I got my seeds from Emily who is Yvonne's daughter back in 2006. Been growing it since. It's an annual for me, so I always collect seeds from the plant. It produces many seeds usually. Would you like some? I haven't collect any seeds yet, but will soon.
Judy- My garage is dark, no light. I let them go dormant and water sparingly. About a cup a month. Bring them back out when I know it won't freeze anymore. Sometimes I bring them out too soon and end up bringing them back in the garage briefly.

@duane456

Yes, I'd love some. I sorry, but I don't have anything to trade with you. I'd be happy to pay you for them, as well as the postage.

Marilyn---Just tree mail your address. I'll send you some.

@duane456

Sent you a tree mail.

Thank you!

I thought I had posted about this one. (I guess I didn't hit the "Finished" button.)

I acquired Amistad from the local nursery. Loved it the minute I saw it. It has been a popular plant here locally. It is also a good hummingbird, butterfly, and bee nectar plant. (Though mainly the Black Swallowtails, Polydamas Swallowtails, and Giant Swallowtails use it from the butterfly species.)

I am also on another forum for Hummingbirds and met Rolando there (online, of course). He told everyone that he was trying to get it released in the USA, but at the time he didn't want to patent it because he wanted everyone to share it. (Well ... you know how that goes .... to release a plant in the USA, the plant producer has to make a profit. I don't know if Rolando gets any monetary gain from the sale of this plant or not.) Everyone on the forum was very excited to see it and then later get this plant! It is everything that Rolando promised it would be and it's name does indeed mean "friendship".

I have it growing in several places in my backyard. It needs to be pruned periodically to maintain a fuller bush otherwise it gets rather lanky. The purple blooms are a true shade of purple (to my eyes). It does not produce seeds. It grows well with fertilizing twice a year. I like to use the time-released fertilizer in the Spring. It blooms year round here in my zone. It's one of my top 5 favorite salvias.

Here is a photo I submitted to the Plant Database:

@beckygardener
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this information! As I have begun to learn more about plants I have been very disheartened by this "patenting" of plants. Especially ones that occur naturally and are discovered by someone. I know if I was fortunate enough to discover a new variety or hybrid, I would as Rolando did, want to share it with everyone freely. I understand there are some people who put a lot of time and care into hybridization and some compensation for that I don't have a problem with. At any rate Amistad is number one for me! Your picture is beautiful too!

Judy - Thank you very much!

beckygardener said:I thought I had posted about this one. (I guess I didn't hit the "Finished" button.)

I acquired Amistad from the local nursery. Loved it the minute I saw it. It has been a popular plant here locally. It is also a good hummingbird, butterfly, and bee nectar plant. (Though mainly the Black Swallowtails, Polydamas Swallowtails, and Giant Swallowtails use it from the butterfly species.)

I am also on another forum for Hummingbirds and met Rolando there (online, of course). He told everyone that he was trying to get it released in the USA, but at the time he didn't want to patent it because he wanted everyone to share it. (Well ... you know how that goes .... to release a plant in the USA, the plant producer has to make a profit. I don't know if Rolando gets any monetary gain from the sale of this plant or not.) Everyone on the forum was very excited to see it and then later get this plant! It is everything that Rolando promised it would be and it's name does indeed mean "friendship".

I have it growing in several places in my backyard. It needs to be pruned periodically to maintain a fuller bush otherwise it gets rather lanky. The purple blooms are a true shade of purple (to my eyes). It does not produce seeds. It grows well with fertilizing twice a year. I like to use the time-released fertilizer in the Spring. It blooms year round here in my zone. It's one of my top 5 favorite salvias.

Here is a photo I submitted to the Plant Database:

• Salvia 'Amistad'
• Uploaded by beckygardener

@beckygardener

I've been on that site you are talking about.http://www.network54.com/Forum/439743 I read every so often. I joined awhile back too. I don't even remember my user name there right now.

I've grown it as an annual, since Kermit of Flowers By The Sea first offered it and I love it! Gorgeous purple color!

I knew about the backstory.

jg0613 said:@beckygardener
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this information! As I have begun to learn more about plants I have been very disheartened by this "patenting" of plants. Especially ones that occur naturally and are discovered by someone. I know if I was fortunate enough to discover a new variety or hybrid, I would as Rolando did, want to share it with everyone freely. I understand there are some people who put a lot of time and care into hybridization and some compensation for that I don't have a problem with. At any rate Amistad is number one for me! Your picture is beautiful too!

@jg0613

This is what I wrote in the comment section of Amistad' March 2013.....

Posted by Marilyn (Northern KY - Zone 6a) on Mar 18, 2013 2:19 AM

Salvia 'Amistad' is a very new Salvia. Very large and long flowers. The flowers are purple and it is a hybrid. They look like the shape of Salvia 'Black and Blue'. This Salvia has generated a great deal of excitement in the Salvia world. It's a hummingbird magnet!

Rolando Uria of the University of Buenos Aries discovered this wonderful Salvia in 2005 at a plant show in Argentina and wanted to share it with everybody. Amistad is Spanish for friendship, hence the common name of Friendship Salvia.

Rolando Uria stated he didn't want this Salvia patented, intending for the plant to be freely distributed around the world and he gave a cutting to a grower in the US when the grower was in Argentina, but after the cutting came to the US, it unfortunately got into the hands of a US company that is going to have it patented.

jg0613 said:@beckygardener
Your picture is beautiful too!