Re: Salvia advice sought.

At 02:45 AM 4/22/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Glenn,
>
>Betsy Clebsch(sp?) has a book out on Salvias which is a great reference
book, as it has both pictures and geographic origins as well as her own
experience with growing salvias.  The descriptions and blooming times I list
are based on my cool maritime mediterranean , climate of Berkeley,
California, where it rarely frosts but it also rarely gets hot either.
>
>You have made it difficult in restricting this list to only 10 varieties,
as there are probably 150 or more available in the trade these days in
California.  
>
>I'd be interested to hear which varieties are available in South Africa...
>
>Regards, 
>
>David Feix, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Berkeley, California
>
>Glenn Breayley <valhalla@iafrica.com> wrote:
>Hi all
>
>The Salvias are rather underused here in SA compared to elsewhere. I am
>rather confused as to which ones to best go for though. Would anyone be
>prepared to make any recommendations as to what would be the 10 best to try.

Glenn & David:

There are some outstanding South African Salvias that should be tried:

Salvia muirii - 1" deep blue flowers on a compact plant that has small
foliage, the most like S. greggii in habit for any Old World Salvia I have
seen yet.

S. chamelaeagnea - has light green foliage and dense heads of fairly large
lavender and white flowers with small burgundy calyxes.  This is quite nice
in bloom.

S. aurea (S. africana-lutea) - has almost 2" orange-brown flowers with
lipped calyxes on 2 to 3 foot stems.  Grey-green fairly tidy foliage.

S. africana (S. africana-caerulea) - another white and purple flowered
species, similar to S. chaemaeagnea, not quite as showy but still nice.

S. dentata - cousin to S. africana, with somewhat larger flowers, later
blooming.

S. dolomitica - a large-flowered cousin? of S. africana with calyxes that
expand in fruit.

All of these seem to have a coppice-like habit, with multiple shoots from
underground growth.

S. scabra - a Cape coastal species that has thin, pale tubular flowers of
various shades of mauve to bluish and green, dandelion-like leaves.  Looks
like a good seed producer.  Tolerates my humid summers well, and reminds me
of our native S. lyrata.

Some nice other xeric recommendations from the New World:

S. melissodora - a woody shrub (6 feet) with spikes of 1 cm. lavender
flowers.  One form has grape-scented flowers and is a Tarahumara Indian (SW
Chihuahua) healing herb.

S. clevelandii - many forms of this, many worth trying.  `Betsy Clebsch',
`Winifred Gilman', `Aromas', and `Pozo Blue' all come to mind as nice forms
with variations in foliage size and flower color (blue to lavender).
Hybrids like `Alan Chickering' are also nice.

S. schaffneri (currently called S. oresbia or S. darcyi) - a xeric,
colony-forming species from NE Mexico that handles heat pretty well and has
2 inch scarlet flowers.

S. leucantha forms and hybrids - Besides the white-flowered form with purple
stems and calyxes, there is a purple-flowered form `Midnight', the hybrid
`Anthony Parker', with 18 to 24 inch spikes of charcoal purple (a cross with
pineapple sage), `Waverly' an unknown form or hybrid with reduced hairs and
larger, white flowers, and some new forms about to go in the trade. 

S. chionophylla - from the Chiuhuahuan desert, a plant thet creeps like a
potentilla and roots wherever it can find good soil.  It is like a giant
silver thyme, and has half-inch icy blue flowers.  Foliage is roundish and
silver-white, hence the name snowflake sage.

S.chamaedryoides - a 2 foot shrubby relative of the above and of S. greggii
with silvery leaves and sky-blue flowers.

S. regla - an arboreal species with almost 3 inch orange-scarlet flowers.
When thriving, it can be so heavy with flowers that it weeps from their
weight.  I collected seed in Coahuila, Mexico from a 15 foot tall plant
witha 4 inch caliper at eye level.  Other forms are more coppice-like in habit.

Of course, I can think of a lot more, but these will do for now.

There are now two publications from Timber Press on sages.  A Book of
Salvias - Sages for Every Garden by Betsy Clebsch has been joined by The
Gardener's Guide to Growing Salvias by John Sutton.  Both authors pay
attention to the Salvias grown in the western Mediterranean, especially the
Sutton book.

Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, North Carolina  27406 USA
336-674-3105
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