Salvia ' Oceania Blue'

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Umbrian

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Salvia ' Oceania Blue'
« on: June 14, 2018, 06:38:35 AM »
Think you will love this Salvia Charithea - given to me by a friend visiting from the UK last year. I was unsure if it had survived our harsher than usual winter and was delighted when it burst into to growth again.  The first flowers seem an even more beautiful and intense blue than I remember.
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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Charithea

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Re: Salvia ' Oceania Blue'
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2018, 09:35:00 AM »
You are right Carole. I love the colour.  Our own Salvia is a darker blue and was labeled 'Oceana Blue'.  I think someone had mixed up the names in the shop.  We saw your 'Oceana Blue' in a beautiful earthenware pot in Torrechia Vecchia . Sonia and I decided we had to have one.  I have bought 8 Salvias from Essenze di Lea on this trip.   Two of them have a colour almost the same as the 'Oceana Blue'. One is Salvia patens 'guanajuanto' and the other is Salvia 'Cambridge Blue'.  I have taken photos of the Salvias but they are on my Ipad which is at my niece's house.  I was forced to farm out my belongings so I could carry extra plants I got from Greece.  I was a walking Botanic Garden.  Pictures will follow and' thank you' to the appropriate people too.
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.

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Charithea

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Re: Salvia ' Oceania Blue'
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2018, 05:02:11 PM »
I have been reunited with my Ipad so here are the pictures I' ve promised.  One of the pot with the Salvia 'Oceana blue' in Torrechia Vecchia  the rest are the new additions to our Salvia collection. Once more, I asked David Dickinson for his assistance to order and post the plants to our hotel in Bolognia.  Thank you David. They arrived in the boxes on Monday morning,  that you see in the photos.  I was relieved to see them because on Friday afternoon on our arrival in the city there was a rail strike in Bolognia and I imagined my plants would stay behind. I was also worried how to carry them unharmed to Cyprus.   The problem was solved when my niece bought a handbag, shoes plus a pair of Trousardi jeans and we were given a Large carrier bag. The large carrier bag was not big enough to house the additional Hedyciums that were delivered to me by Fleur at Athens airport. We exchanged carrier bags and the plants arrived safe in Cyprus. At Larnaca airport a lady asked me why I was carrying so many plants. Couldn't i find them in Cyprus? I informed her sadly No and that I had such failure with seeds because of the early heatwave so I did the next best thing by buying the plants. Thank you Fleur also for the Montanoa grandiflora.  It is still alive.  The Hedycium coronarium has a bandage on as it got slightly damaged.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2018, 05:13:29 PM by Charithea »
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.

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Charithea

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Re: Salvia ' Oceania Blue'
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2018, 10:29:46 AM »
After many checks on Salvia sites, books and Nurseries I have come to the conclusion that our wrongly labelled Salvia Oceania Blue is in fact Salvia Indigo Spires.  I will try to correct all my previous postings if possible to save confusion. I am not sure though,  if the Nursery man will relabel his pots.  I still don't have an Oceana Blue.  Four of my Salvias which were brought back from Bologna in June sadly died.  They couldn't take our 'hot dry days'.  Even the tough Salvia leucantha Midnight became a dry stick. Perhaps it was the wrong time of year to have brought them back. The Cambridge Blue is still hanging on. The S Madrensis, Christine Yeo and Lyrata 'Purple knock out' are thriving.
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.

Umbrian

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Re: Salvia ' Oceania Blue'
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2018, 08:53:23 AM »
I think you are right to think your Salvia is not ' Oceana' Charithea- not only because the flowers are a deeper purple blue but also because the leaves are a much darker green. The leaves on my plant are quite a yellowy green and I thought it was a bit sick when it first came back into growth this year. However it flowered early  and has increased in size due to diligent care but with the same pale green leaves. No more flowers yet and it has needed watering and so I think it is probably better treated as a pot plant so that I can protect it in the winter and have it in a less hot spot than it is in at the moment in open ground. In reference to the topic I started regarding the colour of flowers, I do find blue ones most rewarding and true blue ones not easy to find!
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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Charithea

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Re: Salvia ' Oceania Blue'
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2018, 12:29:21 PM »
I am convinced that it is Salvia Indigo Spires because the Nursery I got my blue salvias from has brouht some more Salvias but more compact ones which are labelled Salvia Mystic Spires Blue. According to John Whittlesey book The Plant Lovers's Guide to Salvias, which I have been using to check my own salvias,  Salvia Indigo Spires is the parent of the Mystic Spires.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2018, 02:27:29 PM by Charithea »
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.

Umbrian

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Re: Salvia ' Oceania Blue'
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2018, 07:53:49 AM »
With all the new introductions it is not easy to keep apace especially when some nurseries, suppliers and vendors are less than attentive over labelling. However I love Salvias and am always happy to add a new one to my collection. In the main they flourish in my climate, flowering over a long period without pampering.
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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Charithea

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Re: Salvia ' Oceania Blue'
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2018, 08:12:52 PM »
I love them too Carole and they look good in our garden. I have lamented  on this forum that  four of my recently imported  Salvias died because of the heat.  At first I felt perhaps it was because I bought  the wrong varieties that were not suitable for our climate but then I remember that a few years ago I bought Salvia plants  S coccinea , coccinea 'Brenthurst', Splendens and Horminum 'Pink Sunday' that had been imported from Holland. Needless to say that they  had a very short life.  I was sad and annoyed but ordered seeds of the above , except coccinea, from the MGS seed bank. That was 2015-2016  the seeds germinated and aclimatised to  the conditions in our garden and they are still growing.  They seed themselves every where.  The only one that disappears half way through summer is the Horminum but grows again in the autumn and the next spring.  I shall continue to experiment. Our S coccinea came as a small plant in a pot of another plant from  Sparoza. It multiplies.
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.