I meant semicircular leaves. I hate when that happens.

Joseph,

There is almost identical plant to yours at Kew Gardens, still in flower now. Fewer yellow markings on the flowers. They have it labelled as Salvia brevilabra. However, I had read that brevilabra should have purple/blue flowers. Might be a hybrid? Whatever it is, it is a beautiful plant. Thanks for sharing your great photos!

Robin.

Joseph:

That is one beautiful salvia! Did it set any seed? Heronswood still has a website but I didn't see anything as spectacular as your plant there. Maybe they have a name for the plant by now, though. Good luck with it!

Becky

Robin, Thanks for the lead on possible identification. Let's see if it survives the winter (hope, hope).

Becky, The salvia is listed there at Heronswood Nursery on the web site, it is the unknown salvia from China. They may have since removed it.

Joseph

Joseph:

Ah, the unknown salvia from China - well, I ordered one and it is going to spend the winter inside. I hope it will tolerate a warm winter. Since I also have some of your seeds from ebay, if all goes well I can see if the seeds come true to the plant. I went a little crazy this fall.

Becky

Becky,

I ordered another one as well after Burpees took over operations of Heronswood...they sent a plant that was not the same as the shown in my pictures. It never flowered this year but am looking forward to seeing them next year.

Joseph

If you need information on optimizing the growth of Chinese Salvias, contact your friends in the local chapter of NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society). They would know if anyone would how to grow tricky Chinese plants.

There is a listserv called Alpine-L, open world over to anyone interested in growing alpines. Growing tips for difficult plants is one of their main topics.

Thanks, Rich...I will put that on my to do list this winter!

Here is a picture of the young second Chinese Salvia spp. plant Heronswood post Dan Hinkley sent to me. The leaves to me seem much more linear than the first one pictured in the first set of photos.

Joseph

I found another more recent picture of the second Salvia I got from Heronswood.