Salvia Picture July 05

[Hyper_Eye]

I am in Alabama which is extremely humid and it rains a lot this time of year (though I keep it out of the rain it is outside) and I believe that these are good conditions for it. I hope it works out so I can take a few cuttings and get a few more going.

[Jupe]

Been a while......plants are into flowering....sprawling tangled up mess, they seem pretty happy ..also posted some others here at SPF gallery.....that gallery is pretty cool by the way....  email postcards no less.......

[RifeHeretic]

Looks bloody nice Jupe, those stems are like trees! Is that your only patch growing or are they spread out?

Rife

[Jupe]

Since I can't seem to consume even 1/10 of what these plants produce, my original 3 little plants have grown into 4 patches.  Every time a stem breaks or falls over, its like oh no, another cutting!!! This is the best patch, and I am learning alot this summer about lighting conditions.  Every year seems  different.  Fresh cuttings put into good conditions, grew much much faster, than sick or injured plants that I have been resuscitating.

This is how these plants WANT to grow, they WILL grow this way for ANYONE, ondoors or outside, once you figure out your own enviornment. :roll:  :roll:  :roll:   Thats the tricky part!!!

[JRL]

Jupe how wet do you keep them? My plant really only started getting healthy when I STOPPED keeping them wet all the time.

[RifeHeretic]

Some reason I keep mixing you guys up.   :oops:

JRL, you groing outside?

[Jupe]

.....sometimes they are wet for months, sometimes they dry out, we have a good organic mix here, very live soil, and I think that prevents the "bad" rot from getting started,

  in the greenhouse, or indoors,....I definitely let them dry out, rot  is troublesome indoors.  Cycling and changing the conditions I think helps keep these problems at bay.

[fuzz]

wwaaaouuhhh!!!

i did not even know Salvias could grow this big!!!
amazing!

[Jupe]

My current philosophy, is that Salvia WANTS to grow this big, if you just let it.  I grew some REALLY big ones my first two years, but a tree fell on them.  They were almost 4 meters tall(12ft.)  I don't top the plants, and basically just let them grow, with lots of compost , light, and water.  If you don't stake them up,or let them climb up onto something else, they will only grow about 6 or 7 ft. tall, like this current crop, and then they fall over slowly but surely and reroot themselves. :roll:  :roll:

[dergheist]

Just speechless!!!!!

[JRL]

Sorry it took so long to answer. I got mine in a pot on my front porch. it kinda struggled for years until I figured out it needed to dry out sometimes. Can they stand up to a little frost? I would love to get one in the ground here, our soil is so good plants just take off. We are right above an underground spring that runs from the river to this large pond and when trees get down there they go crazy. Our Xmas redwood from 1999 is now 30 ft tall!

[Jupe]

little frost is Ok....I think its those ground temps below 45 F for extended periods of time that it doesn't like. Warm days, cool nights seem ok. check out Aut.'s hawaiin pictures over at Lady Salvia for a real treat......fantastic!!!! thats what warm days and warm nights does....