Available in the UK...but unfortunately does not set seed here. Keep looking in the USA...may still be known as oppositiflora.

There are some mail order sources for plants.

Here is one:

Here is a link that might be useful: Crownsville Nursery Salvia page

Can someone please clear up the tubifera/tubiflora/oppositiflora confusion for me? I got a plant that is labeled tubifera/oppositiflora, but it seems that the latter 2 are the same plant?? This plant looks overall nearly the same as S. squalens, only that the flowers are slightly darker.

Salvia tubiflora was brought into the USA quite a while ago by Marshall Olbricht and Lester Hawkins of Western Hills Rare Plant Nursery, as a gift from Dr. Ian Hedge of the Royal Botanical Garden of Edinburgh under the name S. oppositiflora. Christian Froissart suspected the mislabeling and had Dr. Hedge corroborate.

Tubifera was misidentified by the folks at Yucca-Do (they did get it confused with tubiflora at first). I consulted with them and noted that it was outside of the normal collecting range for tubifera. The identity of this one is still a bit vague. T. P. Ramamoorthy identified a similar species he called S. jorgehintoniana from the Eleven Sisters area of Nuevo Leon, which would be quite a disjunct. Here are my provenance notes on jorgehintoniana:

Salvia jorgehintoniana Ramamoorthy Found by Bobby Ward in Nuevo Leon on a collecting trip with Yucca-Do. Seed of the salvia referred to below were collected by me on a trip to Mexico on Nov. 20 -26, 1999 with John Fairey and John Ignacio.

M14sBJW-112299. Salvia sp. Dull crimson. La Encantada. 7200'. [The "s" in M14 meaning "seed"].

This trip corresponds to Mexican trip T84M in John Fairey's trips designation. As seen by the note above it was collected at La Encantada at elevation 7200 ft.

Here is an old post from Christian:

According to the picture on Robin Site, your plant is S. longistyla Benth. certainly not S. tubifera.
Ramamoorthy described a bigger form he called S. jorgehintoniana coming from Nuevo Leon.

Hopefully, I'll be able to do a side-by-side comparison soon.

OK, thank you. From what I can tell, this plant was originally purchased at a Cabrillo sale (or perhaps at Strybing), and then propagated. Seller says that provenance is Peru, so from Cabrillo's site, this would be oppositiflora. They also offer tubifera (provence Mexico), but do not offer tubiflora.

What a muddle. :) Her label of "tubifera/oppositiflora" is clearly wrong, if one is to go by Cabrillo's information. Well, the flowers are pretty... as I said, the foliage resembles that of S. squalens (which I also purchased from this seller), both in shape and the fact that they are sticky. On further inspection, the flowers are more different than I originally thought. The lower lip of S. squalens bloom is wider than that of the "tubifera/oppositiflora".

Sparky the hummer likes them both, and he has decided that, after much initial snubbing, the new iodantha on the deck is pretty tasty, after all. :) I must say that the color of S. iodantha blooms looks really nice next to those of S. corrugata. I will keep you posted on my seed collections (as per your message on the other thread).

i checked out the Crownsville website and no oppositiflora.

any other options?

A large, very multi-branched stem of my new S. tubiflora/oppositiflora just broke off in high winds. The plant was still in a pot and went flying (I lost some nice ceramic pots... BAD storm). I'm wondering how conservative I should be in making cuttings? i.e. Is it better to make many short cuttings, or fewer large ones? This plant was flowering. Overall, it seems that I have better luck rooting the shorter cuttings (not sure why), so that is why I ask.

I also have broken branches of new S. karwinskii plants which had just started to bloom. UGH. Guess I'll be at the potting bench tomorrow!

As long as you have robust green cuttings with 5 to 6 nodes on them, and have 2 to 3 pairs of healthy leaves on top (remove flowers and buds), you will succeed. Long cuttings make the vascular system work harder, getting the photosynthesized ingredients to the submerse portion of the stem where you want the roots to come from.

I will take long cuttings when an inspection of the base of the cutting reveals bumps and or half-formed roots on the underside. These can take just a short time to root, since they have already started the process.

I got my order in and was told that she will have a few of oppositiflora by spring. If your interested you can inquire about them.

Here is a link that might be useful: salvia Wendy's Wish & others

What I knew as tubiflora (at Strybing) was an erect, 6-10 foot cloud-forest type Salvia with narrow, red-trending-toward-burgundy fls...not very showy. Oppositiflora was a mat-forming, full sun monster that didn't go higher than 3 feet - but seemed to want to creep to a 10 foot diameter - with orangey/vermillion flowers and sticky leaves that were a darker green...

jonopp:

Robin has these sages correctly labeled on his web pages. A plant that I got as tubifera from Yucca-Do is much more likely S. longistyla. It is very similar to S. jorgehintoniana, found way out of longistyla's range in the Eleven Sisters mountains near Saltillo. The flowers are a long burgundy tube with yellow anters.

What was called oppositiflora is now S. tubiflora. This has aromatic foliage that has the smell of a jar of kerosene that was kept in a damp cellar for years. A lot like petroleum. Foliage is thick and crinkly. Flowers are orange with yellow hairs. The lower lips are much more prominent than longistyla's.

The true oppositiflora is similar, but the plant comes from a higher elevation and has greener, more succulent foliage better adapted for shade.

Thanks for the correction, Rich! Your description of (formerly) oppositiflora is spot on...I've been out of the game for some years, but remember your reputation from quite a ways back.

Jon.