Greetings,

Is anyone here living in Phoenix, AZ or south Florida and growing a variety of salvia? The reason I ask, is I am curious of your opinions on the usefulness of the AHS heat zone concept with regard to salvia.

My experience with growing a lot of them in the Austin, TX area (probably my micro climate is closest to Houston, TX for a really big metro area) shows some usefulness in applying the concepts although I do not think any individual salvia have ever been rated by this system. The references that have recommended many salvia as being heat and humidity (the latter not a concern in Phoenix obviously) tolerant are often not accurate in these extreme areas, and the AHS zones may provide some explanation for this observation.

I am in the process of starting some new gardens in ABQ, NM area and am also curious as this is a much lower AHS heat zone than AUS, TX. The concept does not take into account humidity (or lack of), so I realize it may not be as useful.


Along the same line of thinking has anyone found the Sunset zones very useful for predicting how well specific salvia do? I realize that these are formulated with a lot of data from the SW US and may not be as useful for areas in high humidity.

I think the bottom line is that no single zone rating can predict how well individual species will do and those living outside of the common "temperate" regions have to do a lot of experimenting - and how far out from the stereotypical temperate zone you are, may dictate more experimentation.

Thanks.

John R in NM/TX