Hi Shari,

If your pineapple sage is setting seed they will be in the calyx, where the flower comes out, My pineapple sage flowers all year round and I have only collected 5 seeds off it thus far, I think it was setting some more so I am patiently waiting.I have brought a lot off different salvia seeds from different sources worldwide and I have never seen it listed.With a bit off luck yours is setting seed now.

Cheers Annette

The funny thing is that these seeds were labeled as 'Wild Watermelon'. I assumed S. microphylla. Imagine my surprise as the seedlings matured! I'll look for seeds but will probably just have to buy new next year. At least they are pretty commonly available for sale.

Pineapple sage does not set seed well outside of Mediterranean areas like California. All sages set seed better in these climates, especially in the absence of bumblebees.

Carpenter bees mess up a lot of flowers before the true pollinators get to them. The former are big bumbles with shiny black bums, and they poke holes through the flowers at the point they exit the calyx to get to the nectaries. Pollen grains have to germinate and form a sperm tube to reach the ovaries. This process is evidently disrupted by the bees.

Seed of varieties of sages like S. greggii and S. microphylla will probably not germinate true to the parent, so use a different name for distributing the seedlings. Wild Watermelon seedlings will probably have smaller flowers.

I put this one into the trade after getting it as a gift for a talk given at Strybing Arboretum. It was from a batch of seedlings started by Don Mahoney. Other seedlings had smaller flowers. He collected the original seed from the subalpine zone on Cerro Potosi, the highest mountain in northweatern Mexico.

Rich: I didn't know the info you just gave about Carpenter bees. I have a lot of these bees --- as well as many others -- AND very few seeds AND a lot of holes at the base of blossoms. Now I know who makes them.

I was very lucky this year. My hummers did their job and were able to pollinate my Black & Blue before the bees got to them. I was able to collect more seed than I did the past 3 years combined. It was still a mere pittance compared to what I am able to collect from one subrotunda plant or coccinea plant. I depend on my cuttings if I want plants that are true to the parent but I still enjoy seeing what I will get with the seeds.

Penny