Gorgeous, Annette!!! I think my favorite, if you were to twist my arm, is the roscida. :D But I love them all!

Thanks so much for sharing those!

Brenda

Yes Roscida is dainty and a real beauty.I love them all as well:)

The recurva flower looks a lot like buchanani. Silke's Dream and its cousin Scarlet Spires were new to me this year. After growing so many microphylla types it is a pleasure to see such large flowers. I thought the Scarlet Spires plants were going to be a bust. It wasn't until July that they really started to grow well. Now they are at least 4 feet across and absolutely stuffed with flowers. Whatever color Silke's Dream and Scarlet Spires are, I can't tell, they absolutely blow me away. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Have you got a pic of the Scarlet Spires would love to see it.

Cheers Annette

At the moment I don't own a camera. It is very close to Silke's Dream, slightly darker I think. I'll look around my emails and see if anyone else took a photo and if I find one I'll email it to you.

Hello All. I believe www.plantdelights.com has a picture of the flowers.

Here is a link that might be useful: scarlet spires

Thanks Helena, I like to have a bigeye at salvias, Long time no hear, whats happening, how are your salvias travelling through the seasons?

A lot of mine are great and than I have the ones that just get diseased and die, concolor,patens,sprucei,curtiflora to name a few, all alive and well at the moment, (concolor just germinated), I am going to see Salvia Disjuncta though it is in bud at the moment as well as confertiflora,these salvias defy me they should learn that I am stubborn and am going to keep trying until I get to see flowers:)

Cheers Annette

Hi Annette, your salvias really look good. I wish that mine did as well. Early spring I had some nice blooms,during the summer we had a dry spell that affected a lot of mine from growing & blooming. Some of my mexicanas have reached 5 ft. and I have an iodantha that 8-10 ft. but not blooming yet. It's the waiting game here!

My mexicanas are just now forming decent spikes.

So are some of mine are too, some have been flowering since early Autumn, Go figure:)

I didn't grow mexicanas this year and I miss them. Involucrata has been late to flower just now hinting it might send up some spikes. All the fall blooming sages are just leafy greens.

They all look 'absolutely divine'!
Oh, I am sooo envious...
Salvia is not available here except, for a few annual 'oldies'.

Just curious are there any salvias native to Costarica?

I have only got common salvias available at my nurseries here, I have had to mailorder or grow from seed.It is very rewarding.

I have just ordered the pink flowering leucantha and white flowering leucantha, cant wait to get these 2 growing,especially the pink flowering leucantha.

Cheers Annette

Annette
I am curious is your "Silke's Dream" from seed or
cuttings. My plant is more orange than your picture
plus only blooms summer - fall. I also received information
from Scott Ogden that his Silke's performs better in their Colorado garden than here in Austin. I am trying to
get different reports from other areas of the world too.
I have also read some of the reports from England.
(That is actually where Silke wanted to visit to
improve her English).I have a greggii x darcyi called
"Sams Red" Named after Betsy Clebsches god son.Not to
change the subject but.. Does anyone know where S. Guarnitica "Costa Rica Blue" originates from?
Thanks
Art

Hi Art,

The Silkes Dream came in to Oz as a plant,I dont know who brought it in but presuming either Sue Templeton or one of the nurseries.

Re:Costarica blue, as far as my memory recalls this salvia was found in Costarica hence its name though guaranitica is not found there, so the guaranitica maybe an iffy title, anyone feel free to correct me if my info is wrong.

Cheers Annette

Annette, If I might ask, where have you found the pink flowering and white flowering leucanthas? Is the pink one Danielle's Dream? Thanks....

Here is the scoop on S. guaranitica Costa Rican Blue, from the Huntington Botanical Garden records:

Salvia guaranitica? (D. S. Verity in cultivation in Costa Rica; UCLA 78-015) 12/80-1 Huntington Botanical Garden 40649; 1978

Salvia guaranitica? (U.S. Plant Introduction Station, Glenn Dale, MD 20769. Received from Claude Hope, Cartago, Costa Rica on 8 Dec 1973) 12/80-1 in bed 6. Huntington Botanical Garden 42631

Leaves broadly ovate; inflorescence a terminal spike; calyx blackish, flowers bright purple;, 5 cm. long. Planted out in Subtropical Garden (E-central) 4/23/80 11/81-Plt. In bed 6

It is not a native of Costa Rica, and probably got there from Paraguay or Argentina, where tetraploid forms are found, then was sold in local nurseries in the capital, San Jose.

Costa Rica has been an unusually stable Latin American country, because of a treaty amongst all these countries to foster an independent state free of attachments to all others, with all pledged to protect it from any aggressor, including one of their own members. Part of this protection was to make sure it had a sturdy democracy and economy, which accounts for its favored status with large foreign capitalists and vacationers. At least, that is how it was explained to me once. I can imagine that this guaranitica came up as a diplomatic gift to the local university or government garden.

Re:'Silkes Dream' it is a lot oranger than pic, I would have shaded it when I took the pic, went outside and yes it is really orange, too windy to get a pic.

Re:Leucantha, the name has been changed to leucantha 'white velour' and leucantha 'pink velour'

2 nurseries have it online with pics.

Lambly Nursery and Sue has it.

Cheers Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: Nursery pics of the leucanthas.

I assume DS Verity is David Verity of Cuphea fame. This is off topic but just yesterday a Cuphea seedling with obvious David Verity heritage (big flowers) finally came into bloom. How I didn't suspect something was up all summer is beyond me since the seedling had abnormally sized leaves - up to 3.75 inches, much larger than the Cuphea ignea that had been reseeding at the site for the past several years. The David Verity was about 4 feet away last year.

Thanks Annette & Rich for the info I have learned some things. Costa Rica Blue is to tender for me to grow here.
don't have any problems with the rest of the guarniticas
I guess the next frontier will be converting Diploids in Tetraploids then hoping for some stable non sterile forms.
Art