All Blog Posts

Salvia Van Houttei

Salvia ‘Van Houttei’ is a lovely plant with distinctive burgundy flowers that start on the new growth in Spring, then carry on through the warm months and right through Winter if conditions allow. Flower spikes are generous and held above the foliage. It is a cultivar of Salvia splendens, and Betsy Clebsch lists it within that species, although it bears less resemblance to the modern splendens bedding cultivars. BC also reports that it was named after Belgian nurseryman Louis Benoit Van Houtte, which helps me remember the spelling. Description In…

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Salvia oxyphora

One of the outstanding salvias in a garden, Salvia oxyphora bears big fuzzy cerise flowers through the warmer months. Salvia oxyphora grows as a thicket of thin (5 mm) but sturdy vertical canes about 1.5 – 2 m high. Even when not flowering it is attractive, as it is well filled with large dark green leaves 150 mm long and 50 mm wide. Leaves taper to an extended point, with serrated margins, matt dark green above and covered with tiny hairs below giving a pale reflective effect. Veins are strongly prominent…

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Salvia miniata

Clear red Salvia miniata flowers shine brightly from a shady spot in the garden. They contrast beautifully with the dark green, shiny leaves. According to BC, Salvia miniata comes from shaded mountain hillsides at around 600 m height, in warm and moist parts of Belize, and Chiapas in Mexico. Consequently it needs a frost-free climate to survive outdoors. Although BC describes it as a herbaceous perennial, it grows and flowers year-round here. The thin glossy leaves give it a lush look for a salvia, but it is surprisingly drought tolerant; I kept…

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A seed raising table

Building a dedicated seed raising table has proven very worth while. Just being up and away from pests has hugely increased my success rate in germinating seedlings. It’s not at all fancy, constructed from salvaged bits and pieces, but it’s very effective. I decided to build a seed raising table after getting seemingly diminishing returns from my sowings, and after trying several formats for seed raising. When we first moved in I was keen to get started in the garden, so just put my punnets and seed trays on a…

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Seed sowing in perlite

Perlite is a good medium for sowing seeds, but it favours a particular style of seed and treatment of seedlings. I started buying perlite in 100 litre bags for my aquaponics, as it’s a great medium for the pots. As I have plenty I started branching out into using it to extend potting mix, and also as a medium for striking cuttings. I was cautious about it as a cutting medium as I had a misconception that it would dry out too rapidly (and coarse sand was working perfectly well…

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Salvia roscida (fallax)

Salvia roscida has a unique form which gives it a particular role in my garden as a hedge, screen or pioneer. It is tall, densely foliaged and upright, which makes it useful as a hedge or screen. Spikes of pale blue flowers are held vertically, above the foliage. As Rolando Uria comments, the stiff spikes of flowers are reminiscent of Plectranthus (Coleus). Here, flowers start in May (late Autumn) and last until Spring. Description Salvia roscida can grow more than 2 m high. The caney stems branch from the base…

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Salvia Harmony

This is a lovely low growing salvia with masses of deep blue flowers from late Summer, and attractive foliage the rest of the time. Salvia ‘Harmony’ is also called Salvia scordifolia by some, but as ‘scordifolia’ means ‘garlic leaf’, I am inclined to follow the opinion that it’s not a real name. Robin Middleton writes that it is reported to have been found in Ecuador, then grown and sold for a while under the wrong name. He also writes that it is particularly difficult to grow in the UK due to…

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Salvia naming – good to understand for gardening, essential for science

To avoid confusion, it’s good to understand salvia naming conventions. There are a couple of ‘levels’ of naming, to do with whether a plant is a species as found in the wild, or a garden cultivar. I try to use standard naming as it minimises ambiguity. Species Botanists collect plants and name them in the binomial (two name) system of genus and species. Salvia is the sage genus, and for example ‘officinalis‘ is the herb sage species. The binomial is indicated by italics, i.e. Salvia officinalis. The genus gets a…

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Salvia resources; books and websites

There are plenty of resources on salvia growing; mainly websites but also books. As growing conditions vary so much, it’s good to consult a reference from as close as possible to your own climate, as well as general reference articles on particular plants. I am listing the resources I mainly use here partly as a bibliography for my posts. I use the standard surname system, indicated below in bold. The classic salvia reference book is Betsy Clebsch‘s ‘The New Book of Salvias’ (2003), published by Timber Press. It seems to…

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