[Fermi]

I've posted pics of this salvia before as 'Celestial Blue' but it's more likely to be 'Pozo Blue'
cheers
fermi

[Umbrian]

Lovely captures Fermi - they usually self seed well so fingers crossed😊

[Charithea]

Fermi, Salvia sclarea is a very attractive plant, but like you we had not much luck with it. We had one many years ago which flowered once  fullstop. This spring I was given a Salvia sclarea var. Turkestanika which to my surprise put out a few stems. It died down in the summer and after a few drops of water it has regrown. I am hoping it will give me beautiful flowers in the spring. The Salvia Pozo Blue reminded me of our Salvia Allen Chickering and then I remembered that they have the same parents Salvia clevelandii x Salvia leucophylla.   Our ' Allen Chickering' is beginning to give signs of life. It has been dormant all through the summer.

[Charithea]

Carole I check my newly planted Salvias Every day. I worried that the snails will eat them. Have you noticed the one in the blue bucket?  It is Salvia canariensis. It was a large specimens and it was cut small enough for me to carry it in my back pack. I hope it will reward my effort and grow. The previous one did not survive its first Cyprus summer.

[Charithea]

I could not resist posting a photo of our Salvia 'Martinusburg'.  I love its colour . It is a cutting from the original plant that David Dickinson got for me,  Thank you  again David.  The mother plant suffered in the summer but this cutting was kept in a cool place and it is now such a joy.  I did not realise that the seeds of the Salvia would grow.  It produces very few.  The mother plant flowered and some of the seeds fell in the pot of my Epiphyllum and two healthy plants grew as the weather cooled down.  I have transplanted them and so far they are ok.

[David Dickinson]

I bought some insect breeding "cages" for my sister who used to lose nearly all her seedlings to slugs and was almost on the point of giving up. Now, slugs and snails are not a problem. I have never had a slug or snail problem. Blackbirds are the vandals I have to put up with. Pulling up seedlings in their  attempts to find worms in their pots. Add to that freak hail storms, one of which wiped out all of my potted seedlings within an hour this year!  So I bought some for myself too. They have one transparent plastic side which, if facing upwards, might just keep the hail off. The netting will keep the birds off, for sure.

I think I bought mine here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393532140270?hash=item5ba057eaee:g:MVUAAOSw6xZe4FBK

I remember being surprised when mine arrived to find that each pack contained one small and one medium cage for the price. I wouldn't like to inadvertently mislead people, I may have given a link to a different vendor, so shop around. There are lots of alternatives on ebay.

[Charithea]

It has been a while since I have posted any photos. I have been busy trying to clear the plants from  the overgrown weeds etc.  Here are three photos of Salvias seen in the Atsas Education Centre near the copper mine.  By chance the gentleman in charge is a friend of Ioannis Gryllis so I came back home with 4 new salvias from his Nursery.  Salvia lavandulifolia, Salvia canariensis and  Salvia Wendy's Wish.

[Charithea]

In December 21 I mentioned that I was given a Salvia sclarea var. Turkestanica.   To my amazement It grew really well and flowered for a long time.  I cut down the stalks and it has started growing again.  I had bemoaned the fact that Salvia canariensis was difficult to grow and suddenly this Spring my unknow Salvia which we believed to be a sagittata  stretched out and put out long stalks with beautiful flowers which were identified as 'canariensis' . We now have 4 of these Salvias. The unknown seeds from Deomode's Garden  also grew and flowered. They are Salvia fosskaolei.  I am posting a photo of it.