You sound like someone who should be at the Salvia Conference at Cabrillo College (Aptos, CA) on August 1-2. Hope to meet you there. Bring some images.

Thanks for the invitation, but that weekend I'll be in the White Mtns. of eastern Calif. for an astronomy gig.

Thanks for the great information this is what we need more of. I have a hard time growing California Salvias, I have
clay with some Edwards limesone. I think I will try your
suggestion on fall planting too. I have three types of
rock to chose from. Granite (ph neural) Edwards,Walnut
formation or dolomitic limestone and Silica sand. Any suggestions?

Southern California's varied geological history means you'll find lots of different soil types and geological formations here, but the heart of it is the mountain ranges, which are almost exclusively plutonic and metamorphic rocks (e.g. the Julian schist in the photos). Much of the soil derives from the erosion of these rocks. Often these plants are growing not so much in "soil," but in shattered rock. Therefore, I'd choose granite or silica sand over limestone as a major soil component for Calif. native plants. What's "Walnut formation?"

Thanks for the informaton on different geologic formations
present in the populations of California Salvias.
This is overlooked a lot of times when planning a garden,
but very important to being successful too. The walnut
formation is comprised of marly limestone formed when Texas was a shallow sea. It is mixed with calcareous shale(below) and the harder edwards above.Lots of pertrified shells and other organizisms are present too.It location in geologic time is in the lower cretaceous period.On another subject
I will try the granite in my beds.We also recieve about 30" a year in Rainfall so I am assuming this will need to be very welldrained for the periods of heavy rain.

The plants in the photos grow near the edge of the Laguna Escarpment. In other areas not far away are mixed oak-conifer forests, but as you see in the photos, this immediate area is chaparral. Chaparral consists mainly of woody shrubs, in this area usually less than, say, 4 ft high. Chaparral communities in California occur from sea level to high mountains. Each elevation has, of course, its own mix of species, but plants like manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.) Ceanothus (Ceanothus spp.) and chamise (Adenostema fasciculatum) are common themes in southern California chaparral. One thing all chaparral communities in California have in common is that they are adapted to wet winters and dry summers, and they like well-drained soils. There is great season-to-season variability of precipitation. There can be several consecutive months with no precipitation at all, though they may pick up a little moisture from fog (mountain tops buried in the clouds). At the site shown, winters regularly bring snow and temps in the teens, but snow is extremely rare at low elevations. The nearest weather station for which I have data is Julian, which is a bit lower and less exposed and surrounded by mixed forest. Julian's mean annual precip is about 26 inches, most of it from November through April, and with occasional summer thunderstorms. Some summers bring several, some summers bring none. I would guess that my Salvia sonomensis site at Mile 34 on Sunrise Hwy is somewhat drier than Julian. They should get those summer thunderstorms, since this is exactly where the clouds build up, at the crest of the mountains.

I have tried growing Manzanita and Ceanothus love them both,but we don't get the cool down at night in summer
the way you do,they all die. It does not keep me from experimenting though!!

I haven't tried them. What I gathered from a class with Andrew Wyatt, Director of Horticulture at Santa Barbara Botanical Garden (but the class was at Rancho Santa Ana), is that Arctostaphylos & Ceanothus are very challenging until you get the time for taking the cuttings right. Commercial nurseries grow some cultivars of them in vast quantities, so it can be done, but there's a learning process. Best time for manzanita cuttings is late fall.

Hybridsage, very few Ceanothus can tolerate summer rain. If they receive too much water from you, or from nature, they will die. Concha and Blue Jeans are said to be two varieties which can tolerate some summer rain. Leaf wilt in a Ceanothus generally indicates too much water!

Lorna

> If they receive too much water from you...they will die.

Yeah, tell me about it! :-)

By the way, Ceanthosus Victoria is also supposed to be more tolerant of summer water than most. An Epal in Vancouver says Victoria does well in her climate.

Lorna

Curtis,
As always, I enjoy your pictures. I doubt I'll get out to see these sages, but I feel like I've already been there.

I'm curious if anyone has experience growing this down on the flats closer to the coast. Here in coastal San Diego, I've had trouble with even the more common S. clevelandii--it clings to life for a few years, and then it's gone, and that's after mimicking its upslope origins the best I could.

Even if I can't grow it, it sounds like a great thing to stop for along some of those amazing Laguna Mountain viewpoints!

Here is a link that might be useful: [ lost in the landscape ]

How many years? I don't think they last very long, even in the best of conditions, so "a few years" may be OK. When I lived in the Mira Mesa area of S.D., we had heavy clay soil, which would have been no good for S. clevelandii.

The three cuttings that I took of the S. sonomensis in the photos have failed. I probably took them too late, since the plant was already in flower and probably even past its peak. But I now have some seeds that I'll try to grow later this year.