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Can 'tender' Saliva be grown as an annual in my zone?
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Posted by linlily z5/6PA (My Page) on Thu, Jan 14, 10 at 14:02
| I've been looking at some really beautiful salvia plants on-line. Many are blue, but other colors are just as lovely. Some are hardy in my zone, but many of the ones that I like are hardy to zone 7 or higher.
My question is, can I grow these as annuals if I start the seed early, and is it worth my while to do so? I was wondering about the blooming time for these perennial-grown-as-annual Salvia. If they bloom very late in the northern growing season, it might not be worth it.
As an example, I had a Pineapple Sage sent to me by a southern trader last year, and it had to be moved into and out of our garage in October just so that I could enjoy the red flowers. I'm glad that I potted it instead of planting it in the flower bed so that I could move it!
Do you have any suggestions for long blooming Salvia for us northern growers? Thank you,
Linda
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Can 'tender' Saliva be grown as an annual in my zone?
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| Many Salvias that will work don't set much seed, like S. guaranitica. Others, like S. greggii hybrids, won't come true from seed collected from them. I used to live in western Massachusetts, and had pretty good luck with guaranitica, leucantha, roemeriana, amongst others. Roemeriana does produce copious seed and it is collectible, but you wuld have to start with a plant. Ditto with S. miniata. Uliginosa is another good bet, but is invasive. Salvia greggii x `Plum Wine' and the west Texas form of S. reptans are hardy in your zone. |
RE: Can 'tender' Saliva be grown as an annual in my zone?
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| There are a couple of methods that are successful if you want to do the work. If you have a basement you can hang a florescent light set and keep plants that way. Many of us root cuttings in late summer when plants are full growth and then keep them over the winter indoors. Plants like greggii and microphylla do particularly well and yield more cuttings be late winter. Another method which a zone 4 friend uses is cutting down the plants, covering them with bags of fall leaves and then tarping the bed to keep moisture out. He gets 3 zones of extra hardiness and so can keep greggii and guaranitica and many others going from year to year. A no work Salvia is coccinea, which will seed itself around your garden. Many of us also start plants indoors for earlier bloom, sowing them in March. |
RE: Can 'tender' Saliva be grown as an annual in my zone?
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| "Another method which a zone 4 friend uses is cutting down the plants, covering them with bags of fall leaves and then tarping the bed to keep moisture out. He gets 3 zones of extra hardiness and so can keep greggii and guaranitica and many others going from year to year." Are the leaves placed on the plants still in bags, or are the leaves in one big mound? If the former, are the plants totally covered, with little air space between the bags? |
RE: Can 'tender' Saliva be grown as an annual in my zone?
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| The leaves are in the bags and the plants are totally covered by the bags - how many bags deep is another question. I am not sure how he handles the air space issue which could be a big problem in zone 4. I am trying it for the first time on more marginal plants in this zone and will have to see how it goes. It is a good all around solution since the leaves have to be gathered anyway and after their protection job is done they become mulch. |
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