Re: Salvia advice sought.
- To: M*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Salvia advice sought.
- From: R* F* D*
- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 00:18:09 -0400 (EDT)
At 10:13 AM 4/25/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Richard--the salvias you list are intriguing. Do you know if
>any of them tolerate anything less than full sun and the
>foggy summer mild winter climate we get in the Bay Area of
>California?
>
>Thanks--Barbara - in Berkeley
>
>> 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.
Betsy Clebsch has been able to grow these pretty well up in the hills. I
would guess that they might find the coast a bit much and would require
excellent soil and air drainage, along with opening up the base, which will
get very dense with multiple stems and foliage. Dead leaves will accumulate
there, and prolonged moisture will eventually rot them out. This won't be a
problem further inland, where there is more sun and less dew and fog.
>>
>> 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.
This could get to be a weed, but a nice one.
>>
>> Some nice other xeric recommendations from the New World:
>>
>> 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. 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.
These three should be treated like the S. African sages
>>
>> 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. 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. 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. 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.
These last should be the most tolerant of coastal humidity and fog, but
still will need drainage and some sun.
All should do well inland with some humus, slow-release fertilizer,
drainage, and lime in the soil. Louis Saso, Ed Carman, and Jeff Rosendale
have always had good luck with most any Salvia they have grown in their
areas, as far as I could tell on my visits.
Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, North Carolina 27406 USA
336-674-3105
