Penny:

All of my B&B seedlings and the one Argentina Skies seedling have the dark stems. This makes me think that yours hybridized and mine did not. My seedlings grew reasonably fast compared to the other salvia that I planted.

Do you remember how your seedlings looked last year? I hope someone with experience will share some insights.

Becky

Hey Becky,
To tell you the truth I don't remember what my seedlings looks like last year. I only had about 4 or 5 and just planted them all out without much thought. But this year I defintiely have at least two differnt plants which should be interesting. I will plant them in different spots to keep them separated as much as possible. I was pretty certain I would have some crossing as I had the B&B, the Van Remsen Form, Purple Majesty, subrotunda and scarlet sage fairly close to one another. The Van Remsen was the farthest away I also had a few grggiis and Raspberry truffles but the greggiis were in a different locaation all together and Raspberry Truffle never bloomed.

Penny

Oh - Please don't say you're going to cull the green ones. The only way to know what they'll look like is to keep them all. : ) If you run out of room, let me know. lol None of my guaraniticas have germinated (again) and only one of my four plants in the ground is showing some new growth. It's early yet so maybe they'll still come out. It's supposed to get down to 18 here tonight and I'm worried that the late freeze might do it in completely. Hope not.
I was hoping my darcyi and guaranitica would cross since darcyi has larger flowers. I did get finally get five darcyi seedlings so maybe I'll get something interesting from those or just more darcyi plants would be o.k. too. I tried to pollinate my guaraniticas with greggi 'Cherry Queen' too since it has such a long bloom time. Wish at least a few of my guaraniticas would sprout. I've got two seedlings from Cherry Queen though. Also have about 30 subrotunda. Penny - Do you think all those subs will look the same?
Christie - who's going to sow guaranitica your way next time instead of winter sowing them. : (

The color of the seedling stems is an indicator of one parent, but not necessarily the dominant one. Many of my hybrids give clues to their parentage as they grow from immature to mature growth, from low light to high light intensity, and from cool to hot conditions. Compared to parents growing side by side with them, they segue from resembling one parent to the other while traversing the changing conditions.

Thank you for your input Rich. I have started potting up some (10)of the seedlings but have at least 20 more to go. Din't think I would have such germination so I sowed with a heavy hand. Will be interesting to see how each develops. If I get anything good out of the mix I will let you know.

Christie,
I am going to try not to cull any as I would really like to see what develops but if I have to I will let you know for sure.

I had 8 Darcyi seeds and shared half of those with another humgardener. Three seeds out of the 4 sprouted but one died off almost instantly. The other two are holding their own so I am hoping they will make it. It is way way too soon to find out if my B&B plants that are in the ground survived this winter. If they do it will be a miracle.

Penny

30's not too bad. You can do it Penny. I have about 250 heuchera seedlings and have an urge to save every one to see what it looks like. I got the seeds from a trader that has a nice collection of fancy leafed heucheras and I've seen pics of some of her seedlings. I can't cull. I get that "What if I toss something good" feeling.
With Black and Blue seedlings, I think I'd want the hummingbirds to pick the best ones. Maybe you can position your bench so you can watch and see which ones they go to the most. : )

Christie,
I get that what if feeling too even with the regular s. coccineas. I know I will more than likely have crosses within those also. I am wondering if subrotunda crossed with any of them. It will be a very interesting year...if it ever warms up enough to put them all out. Last year they went down the line hitting the Black & Blues and Van Remsens first an then to the coccineas and subrotunda then across to the greggiis.

Penny

Sorry to break in to this conversation since I dont have b&b s but I went to this hb and flower site which said that subrotunda flowers tend to only last one day and then fall off , is that what you found. This site is pretty neat in the fact it shows a lot of different flowers and there is a hummer at each and every flower. The Rocks who own the web site go on to describe the luck they have had and wether or not hummers visited each one.

Here is a link that might be useful: flower gallery

Hey Steve,
That is Kathi Rock's webistie from the forum and yes in a sense she is right but as each flower fall others take their place. They start out a bit slow but the inflorescences just keep on sending out new flowers all summer long. They are staggered over a long period rather than one stem flowering all at once.

Penny

Well thats all good info to know, I like the fact they took the time to make sure a hummer was on every flower before they posted the pics, pretty neat.

Steve,
Kathi and Mike are pretty picky about what they have growing since every plant has to be prime for their short season.

Penny