I order some black and blue salvias on e-bay last Tuesday.Five seeds in a package.The pictures and the names are the same the dead line is sometime middle of March.



eldon voorhees

Eldon
just so you know that if those seeds came from plants that were open pollinated and there were other salvias around the new plants could end up looking different from black and blue. I grow some from seed but I always either buy a couple of samll plants from A World of Salvias online or from a local nursery that way I know I am getting plants that are what they say they are. Most of the plants from my seeds end up being different.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

The question that should be asked when ordering seeds is: am I in a hurry. Salvia guaranitica isn't one I have tried from seed and I wonder about the progress in the first year. A plant key for growers covering this question would be really useful, especially when cheep rooted cuttings are available that will produce the first year. Maybe I am just impatient, but I want to know what is going to happen when I plant something.

Ward-- that is a good point because the b + b I grew last year was from wintersowed seed and they didnt flower as well as I thought they might and were a bit stunted but they were the blue as expected, even though I too realize they could be anything.

Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

They were guaranitica. They couldn't be exactly B&B because all true B&B are clones of the original plant. They can be close, they can be better or worse, but they can never be Black & Blue.

Eldon, I tried growing b&b from seed one year without much success. The plants I got were a far cry from the original and didn't come true. I live in Michigan where our growing season is short, so I'm impatient and need plants that are reliable and bring in many birds. Sorry to say this just didn't do it for me. Perhaps you'll have better luck than me.

kathy t.
shebly twp., MI
Zone 5/6

Ward,The seedlings will grow quickly once they start and they will flower profusely they just may not be quite as big as cutting grown plants.

Steve the wintersown ones will be a little slower to get started.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

I grew some from seed last year, started them pretty early and they flowered nicely in September after the hummers were gone. Hopefully this year they will put on a good show, have some cuttings going just in case they didn't make it through the winter.




Martin
--
Vancouver Island, zone 8B
Nikon D70/D200 300 f4 af-s, 400 2.8 af-i
www.frogpondphotography.com
www.frogpondphotography.blogspot.com

Eldon:

Don't give up on growing S. guaranitica from seed! Last year I grew a dozen or so guaranitica from seed, including some from seed collected from 'Black and Blue'. I started them indoors when I started my other Salvia, about the end of March/beginning of April. I also planted out some started from cuttings and some I overwintered in a dormant state in my garage. In addition to those, I also found a good deal on some nice looking 'Black and Blue' from a local nursery, so I had a basis for comparing guaraniticas from different sources in my garden. Most of my seed-grown plants exceeded the height of the plants purchased from the nursery, and they started to bloom mid-summer, so there was no long wait for blooming. I think the plants I purchased from the nursery may have been treated with a chemical to keep them from getting too large at the nursery--they never exceeded three feet in my garden, despite the fact they were healthy and blooming when I purchased them. My seed-grown plants grew to four to five feet tall and bloomed as well as the cutting-grown and purchased plants. Ward and others mention that what you grow from seed will not be 'Black and Blue' and may not resemble them in terms of having dark calyces. This is true, but the plants will still be beautiful and be hummer-attractive. Most of my plants from 'Black and Blue' seed had darkish calyces, though not as dark as 'Black and Blue'.

I think that guaraniticas are not normally grown from seed because the seed is very difficult to collect compared to other Salvias. One has to be diligent to collect even a small to moderate amount of seed because the plant drops seed and calyces soon after ripening. I was delighted last summer to discover that one of my most floriferous seed-grown guaraniticas had persistent calyces that held the ripe seed without dropping it--I was easily able to collect hundreds of seeds from the one plant after one harvest at the end of the season (compared to mere dozens of seeds from all my other guaraniticas combined). I'm running tests now to see how well the seeds from this plant germinate under different conditions (another problem I've found with guaranitica from seed is that germination percentage is relatively low). This summer I'll see what the seed-grown plants are like. If they end up being nice plants, I'll collect seed again and make seed available to others for next season.

Because I live in zone 4, there are no perennial hummer Salvias available to me, so I have to grow all of the Salvias in my garden as annuals from seed, cuttings, or plants overwintered in a dormant state inside. The only other options are to do without Salvias or purchase nursery-grown Salvias every year. I much prefer to "overwinter" my plants as seed when I have the option, since it is much less trouble than overwintering plants or cuttings indoors. Seeds are compact and easy to store, and require little or no attention between the time they are collected and the time they are sown.

Good luck with your seeds, Eldon!

Donald

Zone 4 Red Wing MN

Excellent, it is great when detailed answers get shaken out. The various types that are here in the garden almost never set seed, the flowers are chewed by bumblebees. And since most versions of the species are hardy here with the exception of Van Remsen, other seeds get planted.

I am watching this thread closely when I should be doing other things, and am waiting patiently to se my seeds come to fruition!
We can watch together, Eldon!

I need to go look for my seeds again. I had a small container of seeds that I collected late summer/early fall but I have no idea where I put them. I have been looking for them off and on since just after the first of the year and they seem to have walked off. I may still have some old seeds laying around from last year that I can try sowing. I remember seeing a small envelope of those while I was looking for this years seed.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Penny thank goodness I am not the only person who hides things from myself. If something happens to me it will take my children at least 2 years to go through everything I have poked back. Or they will just have a huge dumpster put at the front door and start filling it up.

I have not found any of my B&B coming up yet. I guess it is a little too early for them.

Dianne,
My husband has already told me that if I go first he is going to get a dumpster and just throw stuff out LOL! He will probably spend the rest of his life 'finding stuff' that I put back. He might even find money LOL!

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

That is why we are consider as hummingbird member we can talk all we want aBOUT HUMMINGBIRDS .No one else is interest of talking about hummingbirds in public.



eldon voorhees

As the kids would say 'BORING'!

I mentioned to my doctor Wednesday that the Hummingbird Migration Map had been posted and his wife told me before I left the office that he had already told her they had to get the feeders ready. I promised her a David 'verity'.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

I for one did not know what to expect from my wintersowed B & B seeds but they did have dark calyxes and they did flower ok or so my hummers said, but they werent very tall under 3 ft. I have not had any luck in the past at germinating those seeds inside so that was a last resort for me. I didnt get any seeds from my b&b this year, but this year I may purchase a couple and hope to take cuttings and do with those what I did with the cuphea plants this past winter as they have done so well for me inside. I also wish that I had taken cuttings from my tutti fruitti and blue ensign which I was so proud of but during that period that I speak of was when I became quite sick so everything I wanted to do didnt get done. My tutti fruitti and blue ensign were about 4 and 1/2 ft tall

I also am really late in getting my indoor seeds started as I just got that started today, compared to last year I started first week of feb, big mistake. I also am waiting on a few seeds that I had swapped with someone online. I was excited to finally get started with that. Its a good time of year. As we all know what all this prep is for.