California Salvia Summit Picture Travelogue August 2008

I am finally ready to post the best of my digital photos I took during the Salvia Summit at Cabrillo College early August. Besides the gardens there, I took trips to the gardens of Sandi Martin and Ginny Hunt, in the hills above Cabrillo in Aptos. The Cabrillo garden is just above the narrow coastal plane by about 100 feet. The last set of images comes from Betsy Clebsch's garden on Skyline Drive, just down from the crest towards the Pacific Ocean.

A word about the blooms: this is not the optimum time of year for maximum flowering. The best time of year is October through December, and probably when spring breaks February on.until it starts to get hot.

This image is a closeup of Salvia curviflora, probably the form not in Europe. It was a nursery plant at Cabrillo.

I'll add a few more over the next few days, and create a link to a web page I will construct for all 53 images

Here is a Salvia in Betsy Clebsch's garden that Christian Froissart identified as S/ macrophylla x sagittata. The macrophylla was probably the large upright form, based on the leaf size and the upright habit of the plant.

Here is a close up of the blue sage.

Here is the Tarahumara Grape-scented sage (S. melissodora) at Ginny Hunt's home

Here is the champion Salvia patens of the world at Cabrillo. There were so many flowers that there was nearly a solid blue carpet from the litter below the plant.

The last image tonight is of Salvia lasiantha. I have really lusted for this one for quite a while, and I was not disappointed.

And, in case anyone asks, the LBAM (light brown apple moth) quarantine was in force, so cuttings were not available from Cabrillo. There is a possibility of it being lifted or for a screened and supervised release of materials in the future. Otherwise, we will have to wait for seeds.

Ooooh! Thanks so much for that...I can see that I'll have to move my path back from the melissodora as it grows and I just picked up a couple of curviflora (and, now, quite happy that I did), and yes, I'd certainly like to get hold of a lasiantha too.....

Oh wow, that champion Salvia patens caught my eye. Such a beautiful blue. : )
~Lucy

I love the look of the salvia lasiantha it sure is a beauty. Great pics Rich.

Cheers Annette

Great pictures Rich, keep 'em coming, please.

Think that the curviflora IS the same as what we have in Europe....wonderful Salvia, flowering throughout the summer, whatever the weather.

Is the "champion" Salvia patens the one I sent seeds of to Cabrillo? Looks like it. I had it labelled as giant form, or something alike, it is NOT 'guanajuato'.

Is melissodora now known as keerlii??? I had each, similar, but keerlli 100% superior flowering-wise in England, if later to flower.

Would love to try the real lasiantha, unavailable here, looks sensational!

Just had first flowers on S. arenaria....nice plant...disappointing flowers.

Robin.

More pictures. I am high-grading them, of course,

This one is a Cabrillo nursery plant of Salvia nana. It makes me think of a larger S. glechomifolia, with lots of blue flowers.

I was impressed by this one: Salvia raymondii ssp. mairanae. It seems to do well in coastal California.

Here is Salvia squalens, growing in full sun in the Cabrillo garden. It looks as tough as S. tubiflora, and this is a good reason to get me excited about trying it in North Carolina.

Here is the pink flowered Salvia squalens, on a younger bush.

Here is Salvia flocculosa (this may have been first called S. cruickshankii, with a revision by Christian Froissart) at Sandi Martin's garden. It strikes me as being a S. chamaedryoides on steroids. It has smaller flowers, but lots of them, and can get 10 feet tall.

The last one for tonight is Salvia greggii Summer Peach at Cabrillo. I don't know if this one is in production.

All of those are sooo beautiful. : )
~Lucy

Keep them coming Richard, lovely!!!!!!

This is so helpful....I hadn't thought about the flocculosa getting that tall and since it will be planted this month, I'll have a better idea as to where to site it. I have squalens in a large pot and it gets a good blast of hot afternoon sun, so believe I'll plant it in pretty much full sun here too, though my full sun will be hotter than Cabrillo's. Sure do like the raymondii. Thanks again, Rich, for taking the time to do this.

Rich, those are gorgeous pics! Thanks for sharing!

Fantastic pictures! Thank you for posting them.

It's the next best thing to being there, thanks for the great photos and commentary, Richard!

Joseph

Richard---thanks for sending all the fabulous pictures. It makes me want to grow ALL of them---------but, I can just imagine what my humid Mississippi weather would do to some of them. Please keep sending more--

Shirleyd

A few more for today

Salvia amarissima is a relative of S. urica and has a similar habit. It should be a good seed producer and bloom late summer through autumn.

Rich, is amarissima growing in full sun? Looks as though it is.......

Yes , it is. Most of the Cabrillo garden is in sun, except for the back, which gets some shade.

The next sage is Salvia x westerae, a hybrid of S. orbignaei x S. haenkei, and has rather large flowers. I expect a medium-sized bush that dies back in cold weather. It looks like it has promise along the Gulf and lower Atlantic coasts of the USA

Shirley a lot of the salvias love the humidity, I am smackbang in the middle of the tropics and grow close to 300, they love it here, they are in full growth mode.

My Amarissima has to have part shade here, the flowers wilt by midday in full sun.

Love the pics of healthy flowers and plants, keep them coming:))

Annette

Thanks to both of you...my amarissima is part shade also, Annette, so I'll leave it alone. I was thinking that I might cut back more branches to give it more sun,but won't now.

Salvia lycioides, especially the forms from the Guadeloupe Mountains on the Texas-New Mexico border north of Big Bend, are pretty durable in USDA zone 6. It needs drainage and heavy rains will mess it up unless it has good drainage.

It is also found at the higher elevations of the mountains around Saltillo and Monterrey, and may be a parent of other blue sages it is related to, such as S. coahuilensis and S. muelleri, found at lower elevations, often in swarms with S. greggii and S. microphylla forms.

Salvia atrocyanea is a relative of S. guaranitica. It does much better at Cabrillo than it does for me and Tony Avent (Plant Delights). I need to see it tried in some other climatic zones before I give up on it.

Enough for today. I have to sow some of the seeds I got from Cabrillo now.