I cannot grow Salvia patens down here because of the heat
but it is cold hardy to 20 and so is S.africana "Lutea"
is it the moisure that kills yours? I also grow brugmansia
with a little protection in ground with out any problems.
In pots it should be easier to build a small cold frame
on the side of the house so you can winter things over.
Use PVC and frost cloth with plastic over that with a few clamps to hold them on the PVC. use some rebar to hold the PVC in the ground
Art

Art:

Salvia africana "Lutea" is back to being called Salvia aurea, just as Salvia africana coerulea is now returned to S. africana.

Ex. 10. Salvia "africana coerulea" (Linnaeus, Sp. Pl.: 26. 1753) and Gnaphalium "fruticosum flavum" (Forsskål, Fl. Aegypt.-Arab.: cxix. 1775) are generic names followed by two adjectival words in the nominative case. They are not to be regarded as species names.

Here is a link that might be useful: International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, SECTION 4. NAMES OF SPECIES, Article 23

I have found that I can just pile up mulch on my S elegans and it does fine over the winter. I had the gold leafed elegans but the drought killed it last year, OH, and the fact that I moved it in the middle of the summer. It did well through the winters out here in my Zone 8. Again it must be that I have more drainage than art. It suffers more than it did in my garden in town during the summers from lack of water. I haVE some S. scabras that I will be throughing some large pots over during our snapes this year. How sensitive id S tingo blue?

Rich :
Thank you for keeping me on track, my post late at night
have not been the best. Have you had experience over
wintering S.Patens? Tom Pease has wintered it in his garden.
Art

Isn't Tingo Blue a macrophylla? My macrophylla alway die with the first frost.

Tingo Blue is indeed a macrophylla. I am amaiting Big Swing to come into bloom again. The plants are rather healthy, and, like the rest of mt plants, are screaming to be planted out in beds.

I am going to finish a few postage stamp beds in the coming weeks, after I prep my greenhouse for the first frost. I hope to trial Salvia stolonifera, S. lineata, and a few others this winter.

I gave my overwintering method for S patens a while ago and don't want to be a bore, but it was last year I think so maybe it can run again! I keep mine in their pots, cut them right back, let them dry out quite a bit and then store them in the dark in a cold place - like this they will take several degrees of frost, but I usually keep them just frost free. Don't let them dry out completely but water very sparingly. The key thing is to keep them cool in spring and not let them start into growth too soon. If you don't get late frosts you can put them out again as soon as you are pretty well sure hard frosts are over, if they haven't started growing; but if you do get late frosts you have to somehow stop them starting into growth before you can put them out, unless you have a cool, light, intermediate place, which is difficult to achieve. But actually, if they get nipped by a late frost they will make more growth anyway, so I usually risk it.

S lutea is more difficult. It does sometimes overwinter with me, given good drainage, but I reckon it can't take more than a couple of degrees of frost, though sometimes it will shoot again from the base if damaged. As it's evergreen it needs light, but I keep mine either in a cold greenhouse (it does drop below freezing, but not much) or in a open-fronted outbuilding - I push them further in for a few days if the weather turns colder. Kept like this they do tend to be straggly and I cut them back in the spring, which means either that they look tatty at time of flowering (if I do it after), or they flower late and I lose some flowers. I decide which to do according to how early they seem to be going to flower.

Hope this helps!

Drusilla:

Your techniques should also be used for other tuberous sages, especially S. clinopodioides. I lost my bigger plants, but was able to keep my smaller stock last year. S. stolonifera is also tuberous. I hope it proves to be as durable as S. guaranitica.

In your experience, what is the best way to keep S. meyeri?

Most forms of S. guaranitica don't need to be kept this carefully, but would probably benefit from your treatment.

S. reptans from west Texas has big rhizomes, and this treatment should also help. There are a lot of other sages with tuberous or rhizomatous roots.

I lost S clinopodiodes in my not-quite-frost-free greenhouse, so think this is more tender than either S patens or S aurea and probably needs to be kept just frost free. The technique works for S guaranitica, which is supposed to be hardy in most parts of Britain but isn't for me: either it hates my soil (although it's quite light) or there is just too much winter rainfall.

S meyeri on the other hand is hardy here, always assuming the plant I have under that name is the right thing. It is like S atrocyanea and S concolor, i.e. herbaceous, dying right down and re-shooting. What I've got is tall, with large, softish hastate leaves in a fairly light green (hairy), and good-sized lightish blue flowers with a white blotch. I was sold it as 'Salvia meyeri - I think!' so it might not be!

I have grown S reptans but not for a while and if it was hardy here I would still have it, so presumably it isn't; if I get it again I will give this a try and report back.

Meyeri is reckoned to be an invalid name, it was once used as a synonym of atrocyanea, completely different species. Christian Froissart, in his book, writes that the correct name is Salvia rhinosina. Unfortunately, he has subsequently changed his mind so now we don't know what it is! It could be S. stachydifolia, in which case 2 other Salvias that I have....BOTH at one times identified as stachydifolia...both different...are doubtfully named. Perhaps there are subspecies and variations?

But is the one you are talking about the one I described?? I managed to get the book (Froissart) in the end, sent from France by my sister-in-law, but have never had the chance to read it properly and don't have it by me as I'm back in hospital, so can't look it up.

If you got it from me or Lynsey Pink, then it is.