I thought that it might be fun to have a thread where we can casually chat about the Salvias that we grew this year.

Grow any new Salvias this year?
Have any Salvias that performed really well this year? Or poorly?
Encounter any new problems or pests?
Have any great "baby" pictures that you really want to share?
(our "babies" being Salvias, of course. )

Let's chat, Salviaphiles!

I'll start...
(with a post that ended up being really long! )

I wasn't able to do much gardening this year, but I was given some patio containers this spring containing plants in the Salvia splendens Grandstand™ series.



The series has a few interesting color forms and plants are a little taller and bushier than those found in the most ubiquitous dwarf Salvia splendens strains. It is a vegetatively propagated series.
https://green-fuse.com/site/sa...
https://gpnmag.com/article/cul...

I especially like that they don't take the long breaks between bloom cycles like many Salvia splendens do. They seemed equally content to bloom in the shorter days of March as well as the longer days of summer. Even when I allowed them to set seed, they quickly continued to form new spikes of flowers while the seeds developed. I'm hoping that the seedlings retain this quality. I was actually quite surprised that they set seed since the other vegetatively propagated Salvia splendens that I've grown were sterile (Saucy™ series).

I had four colors from the series:

Purple - standard dark purple color for S. splendens
Lavender - a nice mauve-lavender color that I really liked.
Red Lipstick Pink - a fun and unusual combo of red calyces and pink corollas.
Blue Bicolor - another fun and unusual coloration of bluish-lavender streaked with white. Great color, but this one did have the bad habit of clinging on to its dead corollas.

I'd love to try the Salmon, too, if I ever find it for sale.

They were growing on my porch in morning sun with afternoon shade. Although it will tolerate full sun, to me, this species always looks better when given afternoon shade in my climate.

Sadly, some mysterious creature recently decided to devour my Salvia splendens and Coleus plants. This has happened at random times in the past with other varieties of Salvia splendens and Coleus so it's no fault of this particular series. It's as if the creature suddenly becomes obsessed with these species and seeks them out. I'm pretty sure it is either rabbits or rodents, and I highly suspect that it's chipmunks. Oh well, I'm, at least, thankful that I was able to collect seeds before their demise.

Has anyone else grown plants from the Grandstand™ series?
What was your opinion of them?

My favorites were the ones that grew from old seeds (nutans, splendens Lighthouse and Royal Bumble) and the blue Salvia uliginosa.

I will try other old seeds in February and use many prayers for germination and survival.

Here's Royal Bumble ❤



And Salvia uliginosa 💙

Most of my salvias performed similarly to previous years. One that did not is 'hot lips'. For some reason, 'hot lips' performs differently every year. Three to four years ago it was meh, then two years ago it was awesome, several feet wide and absolutely loaded with blooms even into early November(very late for Iowa), then last year it was only ok, and this year it was lousy.

I grew three new salvias this year... windwalker royal red, ember's wish, and miniata. I was impressed with windwalker's vigor and bloom power. It has its issues(needs significant support due to floppiness), but it really stands out when it full bloom. Ember's Wish performed as expected, just like Wendy's Wish, which I've grown for years. Miniata performed decently. The orange-red blooms really glow. It doesn't bloom heavily, but good enough to keep growing it. It did become quite large(5 ft tall) by the end of the season, and it is pretty fragile and needs support.

Danita said:I thought that it might be fun to have a thread where we can casually chat about the Salvias that we grew this year.

Grow any new Salvias this year?
Have any Salvias that performed really well this year? Or poorly?
Encounter any new problems or pests?
Have any great "baby" pictures that you really want to share?
(our "babies" being Salvias, of course. )

Let's chat, Salviaphiles!

• Salvia (Salvia splendens Grandstand™ Red Lipstick Pink)
• Uploaded by Danita

Great thread and I'm happy you started it!

Beautiful pic of S. Grandstand™ Red Lipstick Pink! I would've loved to find and grow it here this year. Hopefully, I'll find it for next year.

In 2016, I found at my local Meijer's store, Grandstand™ Red. It was the only color that they had when I made my purchase at the time. I heard later that they also had Grandstand™ Purple.

I only got one pot of it, but I wished I'd gotten more. It sat on our front porch that gets morning sun and afternoon shade and I didn't get around to potting it up, but it bloomed its head off in the one-gallon pot on the porch. I've been wanting to find more plants of the Grandstand series, since then. Also would like to find pots of the Saucy series.

As for this year, I haven't gotten around to getting any pics of my flowers yet. Gasp!

Because of the spring and summer we've had, I didn't get my plants into containers, as early as, I would've liked and wanted to and didn't get around to getting them all planted and potted up.

The Salvia I've always grown, since High Country Gardens introduced is 'Scarlet Spires. I was very impressed with it this year. It bloomed and just kept putting out flowers (with deadheading). It was blooming long before most of the others. Pic below is from 2012.



I always grow S. 'Amistad' every year, since it was introduced and it always puts on a great show with lots of those big and beautiful purple flowers. Pic below is from 2015.



Cuphea 'David Verity' and C. 'Vermillionaire'. I had them in their own containers and they grew great and are blooming machines. I've been trying to find and get both varieties to grow each year. Pics below are from 2014 and 2015.



A new one for me this year is S. 'Black & Bloom' (aka Nectar Blue™) and I love it. It already had flowers on it when it arrived in the mail. I'll be making sure I find and grow it every year. Pic below is Danita's.



Another new one for me is S. Rockin' 'Playin' The Blues'. I had it potted up with several Verbena 'Superbena Royale Iced Cherry' around the front edge of the container. Another one that grew and looked great. Pic of the verbena is from 2015.



A favorite of my husband (and me) is S. leucantha 'Midnight'. I look forward to seeing it in bloom, even though it blooms later in the summer season.



Another one that is wonderful and beautiful is S. 'Mulberry Jam'. Always a great grower and bloomer.



A third new one for this year is S. 'Heatwave Glimmer'. Beautiful whitish flowers. I potted it up in its own container and I'm hoping it overwinters. Pic is Danita's.



Another new one I grew was Agastache 'Heatwave'. I potted it up in its own container behind the white 'Heatwave Glimmer' and the two look beautiful together. I love the color of A. 'Heatwave'. If it doesn't overwinter, then I'll get another one next year. Pic is plantladylin's.



Another new Agastache for me is Morello. I got two plants and potted them up with another Agastache variety I always get every year, 'Summer Breeze'. A very beautiful variety. The two Morello eventually died, but Summer Breeze kept blooming.



I was in a hurry to get my plants potted up, especially since I got a late start, that I was planting some plants together with other plants in containers.

Another plant that bloomed great in the beginning after it was potted, but died a month ago was Zinnia 'Zowie Yellow Flame'. It's my favorite of the Zinnias. It was in a large container tub with Coleus 'Finger Paint', Pelargonium 'Calliope Medium Dark Red' and two Calibrachoa 'Superbells® Red Improved'. The zinnia and the coleus crowded out the Pelargonium and the Calibrachoas. I'll have to make sure some things don't get potted up with other plants next year.



I'll mention more plants later.

Great thread for "end of the season" Danita!

I planted two new salvia just a couple days ago, they were on a mark down rack at a local nursery that always has a lot of native plants and things that grow well in my area.

Coral Nymph Sage
Indigo Spikes Salvia

They were pruned back so no blooms yet. The Indigo Spikes should be 4 feet tall if it survives the winter. I put them in the ground but its been raining so much I hope the roots don't rot.

@honeyx4

Welcome to the Agastache and Salvias forum! Happy you're here!

I always love growing S. Coral Nymph, which I am this year, as well as, getting a few volunteers from it last year.

I've grown S. Indigo Spires before. First time in the ground and because it got pretty big in the space I had it, I've grown it in a large container whenever I grew it again.

I think I'll be on this group more next year. I have several packets of salvia seeds and I plan to try them all. None of the ones I planted this year survived, they germinated, grew about an inch then died so I want to try again next year.

My daughter has one little salvia in her yard and she loves it because it is so low maintenance. She likes flowers but really doesn't like gardening. I'm working on a little island in her yard that has low maintenance perennials she can enjoy. Day lillys, grape hyacinth, and salvia seem to be working the best.

Well the salvias survived the heavy rains and temperature drop. The Indigo Spires bloomed.

In my previous post above I mentioned my 'hot lips' performed poorly this season. I just discovered why. Just like four years ago(but not the last three) its root system was thoroughly infested by woolly aphids. It's a strange issue that no one else seems to have seen before.

@hawkeyewx
Ewww, root aphids. I had root aphids or root mealybugs on a Salvia plant once. They were on a plant purchased off of eBay. Luckily, I had planted it in a container and not in the ground. I was able to just dump it and the infested soil into the garbage.

Wow, so many great posts already!
I think I need to read through them again!

honeyx4 said:Well the salvias survived the heavy rains and temperature drop. The Indigo Spires bloomed.

Great pic. Here's the database link for Indigo Spires for posting your pic.

Sage (Salvia 'Indigo Spires')

honeyx4 said:My daughter has one little salvia in her yard and she loves it because it is so low maintenance.

Do you know what kind and variety that salvia is? Any pics of it?

@hawkeyewx

Sorry to hear it. I had to do a google search to see what woolly aphids look like. They're awful!

@Danita

Sorry to hear about your problem with the root aphids. I had to do a google search on them too to see what they look like. Awful!

Thanks, Marilyn, but it was years ago. I can't remember for sure if it was root aphids or root mealybugs, but they made a woolly, white mess of the roots and stunted the plant.

Marilyn said:The Salvia I've always grown, since High Country Gardens introduced is 'Scarlet Spires. I was very impressed with it this year. It bloomed and just kept putting out flowers (with deadheading). It was blooming long before most of the others. Pic below is from 2012.

• Hybrid Sage (Salvia 'Scarlet Spires')
• Uploaded by Marilyn

A third new one for this year is S. 'Heatwave Glimmer'. Beautiful whitish flowers. I potted it up in its own container and I'm hoping it overwinters. Pic is Danita's.

• Salvia (Salvia x jamensis Heatwave™ Glimmer)
• Uploaded by Danita

I've also been growing 'scarlet spires' for many years. It becomes a bit untidy and too many growth tips abort their bloom spikes in the summer heat, but it really shines in September/October. The plants fill in with lush growth and throw out tons of blooms when the weather cools.

I wish I had grabbed a 'heatwave glimmer' several years ago when a local garden center had it. I doubt I'll ever see it again. I grow 'heatwave blaze' every year, but the rest of the heatwaves either never showed up locally or have disappeared. I'd like to try a couple of the others.

Dan,

I ordered Heatwave Glimmer from Bluestone Perennials. I'm sure they'll have it again for 2019. They didn't have any other Heatwave salvia, though.

I've always loved Heatwave Blaze, since it introduced. I couldn't get it this year (sold out) with my 2 orders at FBTS. Hopefully, next year.

My SS is still blooming its head off in the container it's in. A hummingbird favorite.

My Salvia oxyphora continues the flower party indoors!