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Hi Jill! long time, huh! Just read 2 of your articles- how inspiring you are! I just wanted to let you know that if you don't have luck wintering that salvia 'black and blue', you just let me know, as I am storing twice the number as last winter, and I'm afraid, given the success last year, I may just be over-run, even though the new greenhouse is fully functional! So many plants... and where to put them? oh, the quandries of the gardener in all of us! Happy sowing!!!!! ~Trudy
Thanks, Trudy! Your salvia is in a pot, looking very dormant (eg, "dead" LOL) at the moment. I splashed half a cup of water on it just yesterday. I plan to put it in the sunny window in a month and get more generous with the water... and then I should know... But you know I'm always happy to do a little trade if you're "overrun"... we'll talk! :-)
I might try dwarf ones again sometime, but I'm pretty sure tall dahlias just hate me, or maybe I don't put enough time into fussing with them... Cannas, I am having better luck with! :-)
Dahlias are EASY!!!!! low nitro fertilizer, early start(March), plant out,(full sun if possible) slam in a big stake, tie as needed... alot less sweat than those fussy bananas!!! LOL ;^)~ I plant about 85 per year, and deal with them all summer...
Somehow, that sounds worse than "bananas in bondage"... let's not go any further with that one! But I think part of my error with my first set of doomed dahlias was not staking them... and putting them in a windy spot... in a container with insufficient drainage... *hangs head in shame* You may not want to entrust any dahlias to me!
My "new" tropical for this year is caladiums. I'm trying a few clumps of them around the bananas, and if they like it I'll probably order more of them next year.
So, I meant to ask you- How did that 'high class' Salvia 'black n blue' do for you? I had a very large stand of them in my garden this past year, and found that the ones that I over-wintered performed much better and were much larger than those from seed- in fact, mine were an easy 18" taller, standing at 4 1/2 feet, and went nicely with the coral colored 5' Dahlias and white lilies. very pretty. Also very nice were my Salvia patens 'Cambridge blue' with the Agastache 'aprict sprite'. I wish I'd taken some photos of more than the bees and butterflies!!!
It did very nicely! I didn't have much luck catching seeds before they fell, but maybe I'll get a few volunteers. Mine was only about 2 feet high, but it was a really dry summer, and even with the soaker hose running past it I'm thinking it would have appreciated a little more water.
The blooms on it were really a treat, but I didn't manage to get a photo that did justice to them at all. I've got a better camera for macros now, so hopefully I'll get some good shots of it this year.
That's a good start, I do find that they look much better in groupings to get a real bang, so they don't look lost and alone- keep that in mind, I'll be checking mine in cold storage in the next week or so, at which time I'll have a better Idea what I have for extras. I got a motherload of seeds for annuals and perennials yesterday from the Rockefeller Greenhouse, all leftover from last year; The retail would have to be in the $700 range- I'm so excited!! I'll be growing a big crop for a plant sale in the spring to benefeit the local food pantry- It sure will help keep my cost down!!! There are some new varieties of perennial lobelia that I can't wait to dive into... for my own use ;-) The count-down is on... I'll be opening the greenhouse in just 10 days... oh, the sweet smell of soil...
