All I know that it is from Mexico, which is hardly helpful!!!
Hopefully Richard Dufresne may read this and include a useful input. Lineata is also grown at Cabrillo. I received seeds 2 years ago, the plants do not thrive here, and have never flowered. I repotted one recently, and was surprised to notice tubers, having understood (perhaps incorrectly) that this species was found growing in limestone rocks!

I am growing one in full sun (occasionally happens in England), another in sandy soil in the glasshouse, and another in a shady spot in the garden. So far, they are all weak.......but early days! May see flowers one day!

Robin.

Art,
i have one i full sun and we are in the mid to upper 90's. It is flowering and very happy. regular water.

Brent

It has smallish tubers, and was found at the edge of a cloud forest on one of the high mountains around Oaxaca City. It did not like regular potting soil for me last summer, but it and S. clinopodioides thrived and were hardy for Tony Avent in Raleigh, NC.

I suspect that the soil was a scree, perhaps shattered shale, so I am now incorporating some expanded shale pellets in my potting soil and also in the soil in the raised beds for these sages. This treatment should also be good for other tuberous sages, including stolonifera, meyeri (?), patens, and others like discolor, sinaloensis, which tend to rot during winter, even when watered carefully.

I'll leave it to you to Google for the product I used.

Here is a link that might be useful: Expanded Shale for Texas Clay Soils

We have had strong winds for days, a large branch broke which was blooming, sigh. I think some seeds were forming, as well. Is there any special trick to getting Salvia lineata cuttings to root? The blooms on this one are really pretty.

It really likes Mediterranean conditions, so Christian Froissart should get some. It did very well at Tony Avent's place, forming a clump almost 3 feet across, but kind of gangly. He had it in scree soil. I got some cutting material, and am now pleased to have about a dozen plants, all with near peanut-sized tubers in the pots. I am using expanded slate bits in my soil, and this seems to be doing good things with all the Salvias I have potted up, including rooted cuttings.

Last year, I think the weather was a problem. In contrast, we are having pretty good Indian summer conditions here this autumn and winter. A lot of Salvias are coming into bloom. When I brought my Salvia Blue Chiquita stock plant to the last NARGS meeting in Raleigh, Tony was surprised how good it looked. I hope to take a bunch of digital photos the rest of the season to supplement my scans.

Art, I think the problem is heat. You might want to do a scree, with the plants on the north slope, along with using a large rock for shade. Tony does something similar in Raleigh. The key, as with most tuberous sages, is to have healthy tubers with enough viable stem attached to provide healthy nodes for sprouting in milder conditions.