Re: Salvia forskaolii, Forsaken Memory

Tim, is your spelling the correct one? I have never known for sure how
the spell the name, and would like to get it nailed down finally. (I
also can't decide how to pronounce it, but that matters less.)  It does
great here in the hot end of the Central Valley of California  in quite
a bit of shade. We planted it under an olive tree with Carpenteria and
Euphorbia characais (spelling?), and it has done well, flowering for
months with water about once a week in the hottest weather (This year,
105+F every day for weeks). It has planted itself around a little,
tending to partly shaded areas, even where irrigation is only
occasional. With little water it is smaller, and the flowering season is
shorter.  Another little 'stand' of them is near another less vigorous
olive where the water table is only inches below the surface in winter
(especially last winter). It tolerated the saturated months quite well,
and is still sending flower stalks up through a mass of weed growth. (I
lost control of that area, unfortunately, but they are annual weeds,
soon to freeze back, and I'll get to redeem myself next year.)

The fact that it volunteers so easily might mean that the seed needs
light to germinate, and that planting it deeply, as the rather large
seed size might indicate, might inhibit germination.  I collected quite
a bit of seed this past month -- the seeds seem to stay stuck in the
little calyx collar for a long time -- and will be starting quite a few
sometime this winter. Last time I did this, every last seed germinated,
as I remember.

Gary Matson, far northern California.

Tim Longville wrote:
> 
> Apologies if I bewildered everyone with an earlier message about S.
> forskaolii. Rich's original message was posted to and my reply SHOULD
> have been posted to Alpine-L. Several people belonging to several of
> the same groups tends to lead to crossed wires. Well, it does when one
> of the people is me.
> 
> Rich reckoned S.f. was difficult to propagate. My own experience - and
> that of a few other folks who've written to Alpine-L (with more
> organized memories than mine or more restricted memberships to on-line
> groups) - was very much the reverse, finding it easy to propagate and
> threatening to become a (beautiful) weed. Anyone actually on
> Medit-Plants have any opinions about/experience of its habits? A
> beautiful and useful plant and well worth growing, whether all too
> easy to propagate or infuriatingly difficult...
> 
> Tim Longville
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