Has anyone grown this variety?
Salvia buchananii...
I do--it's one of my favorites. It doesn't seem to like the sun beating down on it quite as much as my other salvias, so you may want to give it a little afternoon shade. I don't think it'll be anywhere close to hardy in your zone though--it frequently doesn't survive my winters.
It's been around for quite a while. It works best as a container plant in colder areas. I'd say it is hardy in zone 8, but I might be wrong. Some thought it might be hardy in zone 7
Maybe it's wet feet in the wintertime that kills mine then rather than cold. Plant Files only lists it as hardy to 9b so I had always assumed it was just a little too cold here.
Hello ecrane and Rich,
The one I ordered I'll put it in a pot this summer and keep it in the shade during the afternoons and see how it does...
Thank you both for responding :)
Buchananii likes humusy soils. Do you have access to Salvia buchananii x splendens `Wendy's Wish'?
I do have that one--it's sitting in a pot on my deck waiting for me to get around to planting it. It's a little ragged right now from a couple early frosts but I think it should survive the winter. Just need to find a good spot for it! I don't have humusy soil so maybe keeping it in a container would be my best bet.
S.buchananii took me a while to figure out what it liked. I killed 3, then the 4th plant which was a cutting of of one of the original ones before it died I finally stuck in the ground and said "Do or Die" but I'm done with messing with you. Well, low and behold it came back this spring and is doing wonderfully. It gets dappled sun/shade. actually "looks" like it could use a bit more sun as it's leggy, but I "ain't touching it". It's growing, blooming, and it's staying where it is. Actually uses a fair amount of water here. But in Sharp well draining soil. Which if I lived somewhere else I might amend a bit for it, but we've been having unusually dry weather so I'm thinking when we get to our normal rainfall, the soil should be right for it. We'll see..
This message was edited May 10, 2011 7:26 PM
Our biggest issue with S. buchananii is its propensity to break. Hard to ship! The stems that branch off of the base grow tall, flower heavily and sometimes topple. Getting just the right level of light seems to be the answer - too little and the foliage is great but the flop goes on - too much and I don't like the look.
Otherwise it is a great plant with flowers that still take my breath.
I believe this is one species that is not found in the wild, but came from a garden plant in Mexico.
Kermit
Dr Bob Bye (retired from the UNAm National Botanical GArden) did find it in a Mexican market some time back, but it might have come from a garden. My best guess is that it is (was) a highly localized endemic. It's highly unlikely to have been a hybrid, because of its small leaf size relative to the flower size, and other aspects. What it is related to is also a mystery.
It was originally found in a Mexican garden or market by a British military attache a little over a century ago, brought to England later, then passed on to a plant collector by the name of Buchanan, where a sample was taken and described by a taxonomist.
Its one saving grace as a plant to ship is that it freely branches underground into a mass of stems, as long as there is a viable underground node in the original cutting. S. oxyphora, which can also shatter, does the same. I've busted a few of those, especially in cold weather, even while watering, and if there is sufficient underground mass and it is warm enough, new shoots appear fairly soon, and the plant recovers..
Many thanks for the historical detail, Richard. Information like this is so valuable, and you taking the time to pass it on is appreciated.
Kermit