Hi, your mystery salvia next door looks exactly like my karwinskii X pulchella, which I bought recently at Strybing and is now blooming.

Your "pulchella (univercillata)" pictures, however, look NOTHING like my plant from Strybing, which is also now blooming. Mine has small, very red flowers. Those photos look like involucrata, or the pulchella x involucrata hybrid (the latter is also blooming in my garden, but not the former, so I'm going to guess it's the hybrid).

Yes, Annie's in Richmond, CA sells the yellow spathacea, but so far I've never seen it available. There is also a peach spathacea, called Cerro Alto. I believe she gets a lot of her plant material from Strybing and from UCB. I'm looking forward to the spring Cabrillo sale. :)

Oh, how I wish I could be at the Cabrillo sale. I'm not wealthy enough to drive there from North Carolina, and it happens in the middle of the festival season on the East Coast.

I've never been to Cabrillo. It surprises me that they only do one sale per year.

OK, I just returned from UCB botanical, as it just so happens that it's CA newt breeding season and my 5 year old was keen on that. The Salvia pulchella situation is a muddle! I found the spot where the picture above was taken, and there were 2 distinct species. One pure red, and one which looks like the involucrata x pulchella which Annie's sells (magenta). I believe the hybrid came from UCB. I bought their last potted pulchella plant (red flowers), and the flowers are quite different from the one I bought at Strybing. UGH!

I also bought something called "Salvia sp. cv. Red Velvet". Anyone know what that is?? :)

There was a salvia growing there which was VERY impressive, but I could not find a bot. tag anywhere. It had spread all over, was quite tall, leaves are big, about 6" long x 3" wide, long inflorescences covered in long, thin flowers (which remind of longistyla) in a shade of deep true red. Beautiful! It was in full bloom (i.e. winter). Can anyone guess what that was? I can try to upload pictures later.

Another thing... I saw 3 distinct types of S. karwinskii (all in full bloom now - I love this plant), yet they make no distinction on the tags. And these were all different than the one which grows at Strybing, which is what I have! LOL

Those newts were the only reason I was able to get my 7 year old to go with me!
It's my understanding that Cabrillo is planning on having a regular plant store at some point in the future. Fortunately, they still make over $100K at their annual sale.
There were karwinskii, pulchella, purpurea and chiapensis plants in that area close to the front gate and next to the carnivorous plant house (a hit with my son).

Here is a link that might be useful: Karwinskii et al

Salvia spathecea 'Avis Keedy' is a lemony flowered specimen of hummingbird sage that was found in Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara, by Avis herself. It was introduced several years ago by Santa Barbara Botanical Garden into the trade.
I have a few specimen clumps under the oaks trees and I've just grown some from seed and I'm going to interplant them up with the native fushia colored ones to see if colors will mix like on S.s.'Confetti'. Will let you know in a couple of years!

Ah, Cabrillo! I've only gone once since it's a 7 hour drive for me, but worth it to make a weekend of it. It is very worthwhile to go on Friday (members' day), pay the fee to become a member if there are certain plants you absolutely, definitely have to have....and get there early (people will be lined up waiting to get in), and it does help to take some kind of cart to carry your goodies. They do have wagons, but they can get grabbed quickly and you may end up without one. I took my husband and two wagons, had my list and a friend working there who was helping me grab plants. It helps..there were 5 dombeyi and I managed to get 4. I might add that my car will carry 42 one gallon pots in the back and my husband built a 'second story' rack to carry more on top of those. Cabrillo has such an excellent collection and the sale is once a year....wish I could go this year. I might add that I'm very envious of voodoobrew's Lake Merrit connection and would like to take a run by there also....

Voodoobrew:
It must be nice living in california you can grow a lot more Salvias. There are 2 Red Velvet cultivars.
1) Salvia microphylla "Red Velvet"
2) Salvia greggii x microphylla "Red Velvet"
The later is very different the distance between the nodes
shows it hybrid origin.Rich has a picture of it on his website. I also know someone using this hybrid in his hybridizing program. He and I have extended it color range into pinks and more reds with better plant habit.
Art

Art:

I did not know there were two different ones. Mine came from Yucca-Do a long time ago, and has glossy leaves and gets quite tall, with long internodes. The flowers are pure red, with the largest flowers with that color for any greggii, microphylla, or hybrid.

What does the straight microphylla form look like, with respect to these traits? Are there any on-line images?

My Red Velvet has glossy leaves; so this is the hybrid, then? In fact, the leaves remind me a bit of S. buchananii.

They didn't have many salvias for sale on the "plant deck", but I did manage to get "cousin" Lepechinia schiedeana, and a couple of rare (one is considered to be extinct in the wild) Passifloras that I have been wanting.

I forgot what an amazing garden it is. They claim to be one of the oldest/ largest botanical gardens in the USA. First Thursday of the month is free day!

wcgypsy: thanks for the tips on Cabrillo. Guess I will bring the red wagon. :)

So, this pulchella/ univerticillata muddle that I mentioned earlier in this thread has now gotten more on my nerves. I bought the same plant, both labeled Salvia pulchella, from Strybing (SF botanical) and UCBerkeley botanical, and they are totally different plants. The one from UCB has red flowers in one whorl, as seen for S. univerticillata on Robin's site. The plant from Strybing, however, has a long inflorescence with smaller flowers, in a lighter shade of red. I'm now wondering what the latter actually is!

Can you post a picture of the Strybing one?