Salvia Black Knight

This gorgeous hybrid flowers all year round unfortunately it doesnt set any seeds. This salvia is sturdy and a prolific flowerer.

A.

Very pretty! I'm going to have to keep my eye out for that one!

Yep...me, too.

Man they do have some pretty salvia in Australia Annette. Sorry for being a dummy here but do yall have great weather all year round or what? Can you compare your weather to any state over here? All of your salvias are beautiful and I have really enjoyed your pics. Thanks so much.

Leslie

Hi Leslie,

I always thought that my weather was similar to Texas maybe not. I live in the tropics, weather is great all year round so I garden all year round. Winter gets a little chilly for a few weeks in winter, frost free, coldest about 7 degrees celcius for a couple off nights. The temps at the moment is already getting really warm with 27 degrees today, sorry we are in degrees celcius here, dont know faren. Summer is humid so great seed germinating weather. The salvia algieriensis I sowed 2 months ago and it is already flowering.I sow all year round here outdoors in little trays and a little slower to germinate in winter but they do germinate. Does this sound like anywhere in the U.S. I guess there are places that are coastal, I am on the coast of Queensland.

I do believe that Salvia Black Knight originated here in Oz or it may have been New Zealand, even if it sets seeds there is no guarantee that it will come true being a hybrid to start with.

I am experimenting at the moment with a few seeds that a few hybrids threw to see what results happen.

The exciting one at the moment is the Van Houteii, it rarely sets seeds and when it does the plants from the seeds throw different colours, I have 8 plants started from seed and 3 are in bud, so soon I will know what this little experiments results are.

Annette

Salvia Van Houteii (It is so gorgeous and again it flowers all year round here)

Awesome flowers on both plants, Annette! What kind of growth habit does Black Knight have?

Joseph

Salvia Black Knight is a bushy salvia that grows to about 1.5m and the same in the width. It is in full sun and doesnt seem to mind. It resides in a garden bed with Van Houteii, Phyllis Fancy, Macrophylla, Costa Rica Blue and Hotlips. I find that Hybrids are very strong plants and relentless flowerers.

Annette

Thanks, Annette, it is definitely a keeper!

Hey Annette. I always thought we had similar weather also. But I am not in tropical areas. There are areas of Texas like that. I am in West Texas. It is not desert but not far from it. We usually do not get a whole lot of rain although this year we have received twice our normal already for the year. As for winter, we usually have very mild winters, maybe 15 days total at 0 degrees farenheit or lower. This last winter was a little colder and we did have some ice. But it would not be possible to sow seeds all year round. Just have to say you have the most gorgeous flowers and I really appreciate you sharing with me your weather and such. Very interesting. So do you get a lot of rain? I am sorry but when you say tropical I think of Hawaii that is how little I know. Can you be a bit more specific as to tropical? Thanks a bunch.

Leslie

I was thinking the other day that Hawaii would be very similar to our climate here.Sometimes we have a ton off rain in summer, that is our rainy time off year, Winter a few showers sometimes but not much:)

Annette

Oh to have a ton of rain in the summer. Actually we did this year but that is very unusual. Our usual rainfall amount by this time of year is only 10 inches. We have received about 25 this year. It is going to spoil me on my plants because next year will probably be dry and nothing will look as good. So I am enjoying them thoroughly this year.

I tell ya, I don't think I could complain about having weather similar to Hawaii. I can imagine how beautiful your area must be.

Leslie

I am not complaining.

Hi Annette, my BKs are just now breaking dormancy. Do you divide or do cuttings of these? If cuttings, would you mind sharing how.

Cuttings are easy, just cut a piece of and stick in dirt, make sure there is a poiny under the dirt where the leaves come from, just woke up not functioning the brain yet, coffee will fix that.Leave the leaves on as they shoot better with all leaves on.

Cheers Annette

Ha! You make it sound so easy. I think some salvias can smell my desperation and refuse to cooperate. Will give the plain ole ground a try. Thank you..and good morning

This one is so easy, some are resisting my efforts but I will get there in the end. It is a node that has to be placed under the soil, I am more awake now.

cocoa_lulu, Black Knight is an Australian clone, not available in the USA as far as I know. Is this from a cutting, or is it from seed? After seeing Annette68's site and visiting Sue Templeton's as well, we need to get some of these beauties here and trial, then distribute them.

There is a new hybrid available now in Australia, it is called 'Wendy's Wish', from photos I have seen this is a beautiful salvia, large pink flowers, mine is just coming into bud now, a lot of names have been thrown around about who the parents are including buchananii.

Just scroll down to S.
http://www.lambley.com.au/onlinecatalogue.htm#S

It is a shame that Black Knight isnt available in the U.S. as this is a beautiful hybrid, flowers all year round and doesnt seem prone to diseases.

The Foliage on Black Knight.

Well it can't be BK then. I live in a rural area, hardly a place for exotic nurseries or plant bootleggers. I thought I bought it as "black night" but after googling I see there is a buddleja with the same name.

I'm not even 100 percent sure what the plant looks like in bloom. I haven't seen it in two years, forgot i had it. It was under a rosemary gone wild. I'm surprised to find it still alive.

So far I only have chartreuse foliage. I'll get a photo this summer for it's ID and proper name. Thank you both!

Salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish’ from Lambley Nursery looks like a cross between buchananii and the cardinalis form of fulgens. The loose involucre with the long-tipped bracts suggests this as another parent. A more likely cross is a puberula/involucrata with cardinalis because the involucre in Wendy is still strongly present. I can visualize the flower as a cross between these two species without using buchananii. The external appearance of cardinalis and buchananii flowers is similar.

If you look closely, you can see the guaranitica and `vanhouttei' parentage in Black night's flowers and foliage. I can see the relationship of dichlamys to both microphylla and cardinalis in habit, foliage, and flowers.

It is also interesting that Epling listed both cardinalis and involucrata in section Cardinales, which already has an intersectional cross of karwinskii x puberula, and that dichlamys, microphylla, and fulgens, along with pulchella, lineata, and modica are in section Fulgentes. Ian Hedge and a student of his wrote a paper including cardinalis as a form of fulgens some time back. Most of us are familiar with greggii x microphylla crosses, and there are crosses of greggii with karwinskii (Riverside Sage), and possibly greggii with involucrata (Mulberry Jam and Joan). This suggests a lot of intriguing hybrids as well as the need to examine the relationships between all these species.

That is very interesting Richard, I have forwarded the info onto Wendy as she may know what was growing in that section of garden where the hybrid eventuated.

Wendy is a lovely lady and a mad salvia lover as well.I have met her.

Annette

Annette, those 2 are beautiful. : ) I agree with Rich, we need those beauties over here. Awesome colors. : )
~Lucy