I haven't started any of my seeds yet but I really enjoy the salvia seedlings, as they are so easily recognized from many of the other plant seedlings. They are also easy to detect out in the garden from many of the weeds that pop up.

penny

Hi Becky
My b & b still havent germed , but I am also propagating african violets and after 2mo I had one leaf produce 7 babies, pretty exciting for me , first ones Ive done like this and succeded.

Part of the fun of growing sages is my ability to differentiate Salvias in any state by the fine details of the foliage and other parts. Unless I have very many varieties or hybrids of plants like Salvia greggii, I can usually differentiate them. With variations caused by different amounts of light, heat, watering, and fertility, this can become difficult, but not impossible.

As far as seedlings, I've observed distinct differences in the shape of the seed leaves depending on which of Jay B. Walker's clades, which correspond to California sages vs. European sages vs. Latin American sages.

In mature plants, this skill allows me to see that Salvia leucantha is a parent of Waverly, Phyllis' Fancy, and Anthony Parker, and to recognize that Black and Blue and Argentine Skies are closely related to one another more than they are related to other guaranitica forms, and that the Costa Rican form is at least half guaranitica most likely a tetraploid, or possibly a hybrid with S. mexicana also brought into Costa Rica. This species is not found in the wild there.

I have ADD (inhibitory form) and think in pictures. This is what allows me facility to make these kind of observations not only with plants, but chemicals, minerals, and other objects and natural phenomena and processes. I think that someone in the academic world should work on a fractal analysis of foliage structures. This method could be useful as an identification technique for taxonomic descriptions and for other scientific purposes. It is already used as an experimental means to measure stressed growth in Canadian pines.

Rich:

You certainly have a better eye than I do, and of course a lot more practice. I have one sprout from the three Argentine Skies seeds my plant produced, and if it survives, it will be interesting to compare it to the baby B&Bs.

Actually, I have noticed differences in the seed leaves, but if I didn't have the plants labelled, I wouldn't know which was which.

You have a gift of extraordinary visual perception, and have turned your ADD into an asset. That is really quite remarkable.

Thanks for your educational response.

Becky

A fractal formula for each species? An interesting idea. The ability you are talking about has always seemed pre-verbal to me, something that comes with our creaturehood. If you ask me about a particular seedling coming up in the garden I can say something like it is round and is downward cupped and has fuzzy leaves therefore it is a Rudbeckia hirta, but it is obviously more than that. More information is being delivered than I can ever translate into words. The patterns are a joy to behold and help to make activities like weeding a rewarding experience.

This fall the common pattern in so many of the pots that came in this was that of S. miniata seedlings. Even though I'd only grown them from seed once before there was no question about what they were. Even at their tiniest they were miniatas.