a salvia jungle
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: a salvia jungle
- From: D* W*
- Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 21:02:58 -0700
A couple of years ago I decided to chop down the grove of seed-grown
avocadoes in one of my greenhouse beds, as they had not yet fruited
in about 17 years of growing. I decided to fill the bed with lots of
slightly tender plants that would flower throughout the winter.
Tonight my father suggested I was wasting a lot of good growing space
there, which made me a bit huffy - I like that jungle look, and they
flower in the winter. As soon as he went home, I ventured out to
take a closer look, and then sprinted for the loppers. What it
mostly was was one out-of-control salvia, S. gesneriflora 'Tequila'
which would grow up, not as high as the 5 metre high roof, but to the
limit of its strength, perhaps 3 metres, then it would fall over and
root, and grow new stems up from every leaf axil, and they would fall
over, ditto, ditto, ditto. There is now an enormous heap of salvia
branches (the main stem was almost as big as my wrist) and leaves
outside the greenhouse. In the soil where it had been I saw lots of
labels, oh, my gardenia, I wondered where that was - then I decided I
didn't have the courage to look anymore tonight, so I've turned the
sprinkler on, and I will search for survivors tomorrow.
Diane Whitehead, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
cool mediterranean climate
