I think Christie spoke of salvia. I have a red salvia that reseeds and a red salvia that doesn't have very many flowers for the amount of leaves. That one is perennial and has grey leaves. It is not nearly as showy as the annual salvia that is very tender. If you like what you have save some seeds just in case it doesn't return. I have another perennial salvia that is a pinkish purple color not like the red at all.

Lady in Red perennial salvia usually comes back every year--so does pineapple sage, which has red blooms. That is, if we don't get below 10 degrees or so in the winter, and if we have a good snow cover. If, if, if.

Sandy

My neighbor gets the blue bedding plant salvia to return but she is on a hill. My blue salvia sold as an annual in six packs bloomed its head off all summer and still looks good after the frost.

Several years ago there were a lot of people getting seed from a plant that was traded as "Yvonne's Salvia" which was a great huge plant with bright red flowers. I got some of the seed and mine didn't grow as big but the flowers were as advertised. It didn't come back for me the next year but I had saved seed and kept it going for a few years, then something happened, I don't remember what, and I either didn't get the seed saved or lost what I had. I had mole problems at the house we lived at in town before moving out here so maybe that had something to do with it. I've had a peach and white salvia that would self-seed every year but I've lost it now, too. The only one I have now is a "black and blue" and it winters over in a protected spot against the brick wall on the south side of the house. It's not supposed to be winter hardy past zone 7, but the last two winters were mild, and I had it mulched heavily it's first winter when we had that one freaky minus 23 degree morning caused by all that freaky snow we got. That was the winter I stepped in a hole after the snow melted, we had dug rock out of it for a tree that didn't end up surviving, and it was muddy. I went down into the hole with one leg up to my knee, my Croc filled with mud and I lost it and had to lay down on the ground to retrieve it. It would've been pretty comical to see and I'm not sure anyone did, but if they had I don't think they would've told me. Anyway, this is Black and Blue's third winter here and if it survives to next spring I will have to do some trimming on it because it got really big this year.

The bees and hummingbirds really love salvia.

O boy. Black and Blue salvia. A few years ago Christie, Glenda, and Helen got me started on wanting that, so now I could use a machette out there. Helen said it made runner roots, and it does! And it's about waist-high to me.

Seems I fall in love with plant names -- Christie's Moon And Stars melon, Glenda's Trail of Tears beans, and now Sandy's Lady In Red. !

I started B&W from a little pot about 5 years ago in a very sunny bed. Then the next year I toook some roots out and put it somewhere else, then the next year somewhere else. I only had a problem one year when it didn't bloom so well, but other than that, it's a real showstopper everywhere it's planted. I guess it is mulched well overwinter, as I don't take the fallen leaves out of the beds until spring, and mulch all summer with shredded leaves.

Nice to have a bunch of plants that are no trouble at all and don't mind my yanking strays out where they are not wanted.

The red salvia I had this summer was just as good. Still have some of it in another bed, so will attempt to take seeds. Think I sort of have a handle on saving tomato seeds. I hope.

What is the procedure for this saving salvia seed???
Thanks -
Sunny

Yes! "Yvonne's salvia" was the name of the fabulous plant.
Thanks.
Sunny

Salvia, and petunia, are among the plants that have very tiny seeds.

I'll be interested to see how others do it, but what I do is just pick the stems that have the little flower bracts on them after the flower has died. Then I set all these little stems in an empty glass, looks like an ugly bouquet, and set the glass on top of a piece of light-colored or white paper. The seeds will drop on the paper within a few days, some right away.

I think there's probably a timing issue here, the seeds need to be developed but if you wait too long they'll scatter themselves out on the ground.

I wonder if there's a way to fashion a paper cone below the flower heads, then the seed could fall into the cone and you could harvest by cutting the stem below the cone and keeping it upright till you could get it inside to pour the contents out. --If you could make the cone tight enough against the stem to keep the seed from filtering down between them.....

Oh, and seems like Black and Blue salvia either doesn't make seed or it's sterile, if memory serves me correctly. But you're right, the way it spreads you really don't need to care about seed.

A cone -- what a good idea. I cut the stem right under the blooms, turned them upside down in the cone, stuck the cone in a glass. Wala!

If it works, we could go into business, Ilene -- call it the OKMO Seed Saving System with a fancy box. Maybe I'll re-retire in Maui after all. lol
Sunny

It's really interesting how plants produce their seed. I planted borage this summer and I didn't get many seed because the seed ejects itself so quickly. However, now I have little seedlings all around where the plants grew. Borage was supposed to be good for tomatoes but I didn't notice any difference in the tomatoes at all.

Last summer I started saving lettuce seed for the first time. They make little powder puffs. Such variety in seed and how it develops.

I wanted to collect seed from my perennial milkweed, it attracted the Monarchs very well this year. But I've been watching the flowers and they have taken so long to mature. They're like little old-fashioned pocketbooks. The tropical milkweed, which is an annual in my climate, made long slim pods in early fall that were easy to spot and easy to harvest. The bees and hummingbirds visited the tropical milkweed but no caterpillars were ever on it.