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Re: Salvia pruning

At 10:17 AM 7/8/98 PST, you wrote:
>To all those salviaphiles-- a question:
>
>I have a large perenniel bed with a lot 
>of salvias in it in front of my house, including salvia 
>confertifolia, salvia "Indigo Spires", s. chaemedrys (sp?), salvia 
>microphylla and salvia gregii.  They all grew and bloomed beautifully 
>the first year.  
>
>Last winter, I cut them back rather severely, thinking it would 
>protect their brittle, woody stalks from the winter winds and renew 
>them.  I think I cut them back too hard. They all came back, but 
>not as fully as the previous year.
>
>What is the best approach?  If I don't cut them back at all, I'm 
>afraid they will become too leggy and sprawling and woody in the 
>center.  Is that just par for the course for salvias?  Please advise. 
> Thank you.

Rachel:

Woody, xeric, cold-tolerant Salvias like chamaedryoides (sp!), salvia
microphylla and salvia greggii shoul be trimmed in a manner like roses or
raspberry canes.  Take a tip from what they do when left to their own
devices.  They will come back at the base with many coppice-like wimpy
stems, but most of the solid growth will start most of the way up.  There is
less, more modest branching at axils part of the way up.  This won't matter
after a month's new growth, since the bush will rapidly fill in.  Growth
usually starts just below the fine floral stems, about 5 to 12 nodes down
for S. greggii forms.  Stems thicker than 1/8 inch will come back in Zone 7.
For starters, save these stems, thinning out for shaping and air drainage
next spring.

The coppacing at the base is one reason S. greggii doesn't do well in the
hotter, more humid areas of the southeast.  In coastal Atlantic and Gulf
areas, these dense clusters of leaves and stems get stressed and make
excellent refugia for mealybugs and other pests.  S. microphylla doesn't do
this as much, and is adapted to more humid subtropical areas, so it does
better for these areas, as do its hybrids with S. greggii like Cherry Queen.

The more subtropical, thicker, pithy-stemmed sages like S. madrensis, S.
involucrata, S. guaranitica can come back well from their base (these are
frutescent species).  I don't live in an area where these will successfully
come back from me, so I generally cut these back to a 3 inch stubble and
cover with 4 - 6 inches of hardwood bark mulch.  Indigo Spires is one of
these.  These plants come from pine-oak forests, and the soil formed from
the breakdown of the bark mulch is exactly what they need.

Rich Dufresne
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