I'd like to introduce you to Salvia Artemis. I started this from seed for the first time this year. I wished I would have grown more and planted it closer together. I think it makes a nice edging and it is so soft to the touch. I'll grow them again next year.
Look how big the leaves are.
Congratulations on growing Salvia Artemis from seed! I like its furry looking leaves! What color will the flowers be?
Thanks Shirley, according to flant files the flowers are white, I really grew it for the leaves, so I hope it waits a long time before it sets flowers.
Here is a link to the plant http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1075/
Thanks for the link. Love the textured leaves! They add such architectural interest to the garden.
From the plantfiles, it sounds as if it doesn't like our hot humid DC summers, alas. Pretty plant, though.
Lovely leaves! I'll bet it might be nice in combination with one of my favorite little border plants, Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knockout'. Unfortunately, in the front bed where I would really love to have it as a border, 'PKO' doesn't seem quite winter hardy... it does reseed each year, but that's a little more random than I'd like as a border (the front bed is trying to be a touch more formal).... maybe I'll try it in combination with 'Artemis'!
If yours does flower, pretty please save seeds from it if possible! I should also ask -- where did you get your seeds? :-)
like the S artemis- cool.
critter- I have another purple S lyrata, forgot name, but I'm also not that thrilled with it. Thought I'd try it in a shady spot this year, mixed into it's cousin ajuga, but with the lack of rain its all wilted now. Most of my shade is pretty dry, rooty shade(yucky beds)
I got a book at the library all about Salvias, few yrs ago. Pretty interesting, lots of them out there, I didn't know.
I love the foliage on 'Purple Knockout', although the flowers are nothing to write home about... I just wish it would last (and increase in size) from year to year... I've grown several different salvias on one corner of my perennial area, and I do like them! If you like the look of salvias, you might also like the flowers on penstemmon... I've got P. smallii up by the driveway, and it has wonderful salvia-like blooms in spring.
(Penstemmon smallii)
You're right, Devon. Some Salvia prefer a hot dry growing zone, such as in the S.W. US, but lots of Salvia will tolerate our high humidity and still bloom beautifully.
Jill: Beautiful Penstemmon smallii! Do the hummers enjoy it too?
How did I miss this post? Chris, I love that plant. I got some seeds from T&M last fall but didn't get them planted. I think I'm going to try wintersowing them this fall.
I have giant lambs ears galore. Another nice fuzzy plant with large leaves. Are you coming to the fall swap? I'll be glad to bring you some.
Oh... I love the fuzzy leaves! I have an affinity for fuzz... that's why I hang out on the AV and Gessie forum so much.
Gotta show the girls over there this thing!
Thanks for sharing!
Karen
This salvia makes an awesome cement leaf.
clary sage?
my lambs ear are really sick right now. of course I had divided it up and made a nice row right along the edge of the bed with it last fall.
Critter, The seeds were from Parks 25 For $2.25. If mine set seeds I'll save you some. I like your Penstemmon too, I have not had much luck growing them, what is the secret?
Diane, The fall Swap is very far away for me, so I'm not making any plans to attend : ( . I was thinking if you have one in the spring and the date doesn't fall on family vacation time, I'd try to go. I love the area your in.
Chris
As pretty as she is, she looks like Lamb's ear to me................they don't like me in south Texas heat and humidity.............
Buttoneer: Beautiful hypertuffa leaf!
Button, how big are those leaves?
I haven't caught the hummers on that penstemmon, but butterflies enjoy it! I wintersowed seed for mine... I still have some extra seed from last year, and I'll try to remember to collect some still this year if I can. I wintersowed another variety of penstemmon this year with little success (have a few seedlings that are still extremely tiny), so maybe I got lucky with the Small's Penstemmon.
I almost always end up ordering something from Park's over the winter, so I'll keep that Salvia in mind!
I think they are about 6-8 inches across. I don't make mine too large. That way, I can make a bunch of them. I just wanted to show that I used the same border plant for cement leaves & it has such a nice texture & veinage, it makes for a very pretty cement leaf. Someday in the next century, the people will find the leaves & say, "those cave people in the 20th century sure made nice leaves, probably worshipping a leaf god. LOL.
I really like the idea of doing smaller cement leaves! I've mostly seen big ones (that you could use as a birdbath or some such), but I could think of a lot of places to use smaller ones... Ooooh, wouldn't they be pretty to incorporate into a fountain, with water cascading from leaf to leaf.... I'm getting carried away again! I need to get some of the simpler projects out of my head and into reality, LOL, and then I can get complicated!
I've got a weed out there with huge, thick leaves (burdock, maybe?) that I think would work well for cement leaves. I do want to try some larger ones, too, but I think banana leaves might be too unwieldy... maybe next year I'll have castor bean plants growing again.
I used burdock as one of the cement leaves. It had so many neat veins in it, looked real good. I think I put a pix of it in one of the hypertufa forums.
Jill: Congratulations on wintersowing your Penstemmon smallii! Some varieties are more vigorous than others. Your patience will pay off!
So many different shaped leaves would make wonderful hyperfuta specimens. Hostas come to mind.
I have rhubarb if anybody needs any big leaves. I just divided it so the leaves are pretty small this year but by next spring they should be monstrous again.
Oh yes! I think that rhubarb leaves would work great for hypertufa. Your rhubarb leaves will be really big next year and will grow exponentially.
