has anyone grown this salvia? is it likely to live in dallas zone 8a winter? how long have you had this plant to live? thanks. barb
salvia jamensis sierra san antonio
I'm pretty sure it's hardy to zone 8 but I'm not sure of 8b vs 8a. I have one which I planted last fall and it came through our unusually cold spell this winter without any damage whatsoever (nighttime temps were in the low 20's for about a week) so I imagine it could take even a little more cold than that and still be OK. This reference says it's hardy to 15-20 degrees, if you typically get much colder than that then it may not do too well for you
http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=1438
ecrane, it's not so much the temperature i was wondering about. but the coldness combined with dampness is what i read may kill this plant. greggii grows here whether we are dry, hot, cold, wet. but i have only had microphylla here thru one wet winter. since this plant is a cross of those 2 to me it stands to reason that it, too, would be hardy here. but there is a whole lot about plant genetics that i don't understand.
Sorry, I assumed you were talking about the cold since I think you're in about the coldest zone where it might be hardy. It should be fine with the wet, most Mediterranean plants will do fine in wet winters (as long as they're not standing in water), but if they get too wet in the summer they will die. Cold + wet is OK because fungus can't grow very well, but when you have warm + wet that is perfect conditions for fungal growth and then the plant may have problems. Mediterranean climates are dry in the summer but have winter rain, so the plants are adapted to that.
great information. thank you. i plan then to place this plant in a raised bed with good drainage in full texas sun. wish me luck.
Mamajack, if you are concerned with cold/damp, try mulching around root zone with rocks or pebbles in the fall. Don't cut back stalks until spring, and don't allow wet mulch or leaves to pileup around crowns during the winter. I have great success growing lavender this way and applying it towards more and more agastaches and salvias. We have sandy soil but if yours is more clay, I would make sure it drains well too.
I have coral nymph this year and love it. Some days it looks pink and others a peach color. Is your SSA the same?
no this is different from coral nymph. this is a definite bicolor and here is the best picture i could find showing the 2 colors. naturally it was in daves plant files. lol.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/93589/
and i don't know that this plant will have a hard time if i raise the bed. i just read a site from a california grower that raised the issue that this plant may not survive cold and damp. i won't worry about hot and damp here as that is rarely an issue.
but this plant i am thinking comes out of mexico from something that rich dufresne said. maybe from a mountain range called the seven sisters. i don't know the differences in climate if there are any. i just know that this plant is a cross between greggii and microphylla, both of which live here just fine. but a calif. grower made mention that this plant might have trouble living in both wet and cold and i just wanted to know any personal accounts growing this plant.
also, rich said that there was probably a third plant involved with this particular cross because of the yellow color. but he suspects that this third plant is heretofore not been found, although someone on an expedition in the seven sisters region told him that they saw a bright yellow salvia there. but it was on an unattainable high ridge so there was no specimens obtained.
Well, mine survived our winter which was pretty cold, not quite as much rain as usual but still a decent amount of moisture (when it wasn't raining I was watering the garden because I had just planted a lot of things), and I have clay soil and did nothing to improve the drainage, so unless your winters are way more wet than ours (which they might be--I don't really know anything about TX winters) then you should be OK.
i am thinking that i will just give this plant my best shot and hopefully it will return. i really like this plant. thanks to everyone for the personal growing info.
thanks for the vote of confidence cocoa. i sure do like it and would love to see a huge plant of it growing in my yard. lol.
Here's a pic of mine that I took just the other day...
ecrane, that' s a great picture. you ought to add it to the plant files. some photos i have seen just don't show the bi-color very well.