I'm just curious how everyone is doing with your Yvonne's Salvia? I transplanted most of mine on June 1rst...have a few more I using to make a sweep from the salvia bed across 2 other nearby beds. I've taken a couple of "before" photos & will post 1 or 2 soon. Tell us about yours!

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Well mine are about 8 inches tall, one group has started blooming already so I put them in a pot. The other group hasn't yet and I just planted them in the front garden.



- Andrew - Ontario, Canada - Zone 6
- Won't Get Fooled Again ~ The Who.

Mine are towering to at least 5 or 6 inches after several weeks in the garden. If they want to strut their stuff they better get themselves groing because they are between a row of Salvia macrophylla and a row tall cactus-flowered zinnias. The macrophylla will reach about 6 feet and the zinnia a good five so the gauntlet has been thrown. From past experience growing this splendens I have wondered whether Yvonne and her husband were actually between 3 and 4 feet tall and that is why their plants seems so large.

What's up?! Didn't anyone else plant their seeds??? If you did, tell us about where you planted them & how they're doing.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Hello Patrick,

I planted this variety last year and they didn't get taller than 2'. This year I planted Praeclara in it's place and they are almost 4' already...
Guess Yvonne's don't like it here in Lincoln. Strange...everything else grows like gangbusters...

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Patrick,

Sorry Guy! I meant to come back to this once when I had a pic.......guess it got lowered.

So here it is.


For some reason she is only 12 inches tall and has a bloom. These were sown from last years plants that reached about 3 feet tall and THAN blomed. They were planted near Stan's in the garden, hope they didn't do anything inappropiate. because they are small this year. Its early, maybe they will keep growing and blooming. We certainly don't want to lose the original strain.





Pam NJ 6B

I have quite a few planted out that I started from seed this year. The plants in first group that I started from seed are about 18 inches tall now, the second group are about a foot tall. One or two are starting to show signs of blooming. We are having very cool weather here (high yesterday was 51 degrees) so they aren't making much progress. Once the weather heats up, though, they usually take off.




Zone 4 Red Wing MN

Would anyone have a clue as to what could be going wrong with this variety? I know my seeds last year were "true" seeds from a reliable source...and I passsed the remainder on to a few folks to see if they would have better luck...

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Patrick, glad you started this thread. I'd been wondering too. I've got 4 in the ground. Three are about 12 inches tall and one of those has been blooming about a week now. One plant just got put in the ground this week, so it's still tiny.

I have a volunteer that looks like the picture Pam posted. I have a few more too. I did not have any luck with my seed. This year I will not try to save seed I will just let nature take its course. That seem to work best for me.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

Well I eyeblled a few Yvonne plants that Suchie got from me a few months ago and they looked very nice. She had them in a pot, not in the ground, I guess they like the potting soil better? I'm sure they won't get as tall, but they sure were full.

Pam NJ 6B

Pam is right. Mine are about a foot tall, pretty bushy and have started to bloom.

Suchie

Mine also seem to get shorter each year. Not sure why. Mine are currently about 8 inches tall and looking a bit wind burned.

Lisa

Lake Country
Southern Wisconsin
USDA Zone 5b
heat zone 4/5
sunset zone 41
http://thehummingbirdgarden.blogspot.com/

I planted my seedlings on June 1rst. Last year's plants were grown in a smaller space, but this year I selected this central site in my backyard, where 2 paths converge. It seems like my best spot to feature Yvonne's Salvias. Potted brugmansias sat in this location, referred to as "Brug Island". I've added organics to the soil and there may be a little residual fertilizer from what leached out of the brug pots.

These pics show the seedlings ready to plant out, then 2 views of them in the ground. In the week since planting them, I've seen an improvement in their looks - they must be establishing their roots well. I'm hoping to see them get above 4' this year. Now I need to reline the bed with the shown rocks...like many, I'm a rock freak!







Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Patrick,

The garden bed looks great!
I hope yours and others that are growing Yvonne's this year will reach their height potential...


Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Patrick,

That will be a very big STOP SIGN in your garden! Great job!

Pam NJ 6B

Thanks, SL...I hope they get BIG and loaded with flowers!

Pam, this new bed extends the Hummer Garden a bit. I the last pic you can see where the established HG begins (mostly salvias, phygelius, columbines, monarda, species-flowered cannas & red hot pokers). In the 1rst pic, you'll see a couple of my younger clumps of B&B growing nicely. I'll probably have more pics later, showing the overall layout of the HG area.



Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Patrick your garden is lovely! Can't wait to see the "after" pics when your salvias are grown. Great job!!!

p.s. I love rocks too!

Diana
Upstate SC
Zone 7b

I just planted out 3 Saturday and another 4 yesterday. Right now everthing is wilting in this heat but this morning when I looked at them they didn't seem any taller but the leaves sure looked a lot bigger. It is amazing how much better things grow in the ground! Strange (or stupid?) thing - I have a few red impatiens reseed every year. There are 3 plants that I thought were impatiens at first (leaves same shape) but I realized when the plants got much taller than the impatiens and never turned darker green that they are Yvvone's Salvia. That bed is no where near the garden where the salvia grows. Still have to move those 3.

Linda
ne AL
zone 7b

It's been just over a month since our last progress reports, so I thought I'd bump this forward and see how your Yvonne's Salvia plants are doing. I would guess some of you are seeing good-sized plants in bloom by now? Here, where it's cooler, they take longer to hit their peak, but mine are doing very well...ranging from 22" to 30" and getting quite bushy. I have 3 that are opening their first blooms and am hoping the "big show" will begin around the end of August. Does anyone have pics to show?

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Patrick, it has been cooler than usual here too. It took until mid June for the row to turn from that sickly light green that seedlings often have. In the past month they have grown into stout little plants averaging a couple of feet tall. Only two plants have even attempted to bloom but the signs are everywhere. They are starting to grow bushy with multiple stems rising from near the ground. There is little chance that any will reach 5 or 6 feet but 4 feet is possible. There is another small plant outside the row. It is a volunteer seedling in the tomato row and probably less than a foot tall.

I like the way you have made a patch. Patches look good and appear natural and are much better when you are trying to gage hummingbird use.

I know I planted some direct into the soil, and near to where I thought it was planted(the dogs knocked out the ID stakes)there is an 'unknown plant', presently 5 ft tall with no open blooms as yet. Multiple stems near the top,(I can't see the bottom) with much larger leaves.It looks like there should be blooms in a week or so....
Probably will bloom when I am away, like last year!

I only planted 4. 3 of them are closing in on 2 feet tall and finally beginning to get a bit more bushy. Each of those has a handful of bloom stalks on them. My spot ends up having more shade than I anticipated. The 4th I think is in a spot that gets more shade and isn't doing too great.
dell

Mine really looked promising a few days after I finally got them out in the garden but then in June the rain stopped and they just sat there. Right now they are about 2 ft. tall blooming and the hummers are using them. We finally had an inch and a half of rain last week and it rained anothe inch and a quarter Sunday night so maybe they will grow more.

Comparison pics....photos taken from same viewpoint...note the dates:

27Jun09


04Jul09


15Jul09




And the overall pics of the bed, again from the same viewpoint:

27Jun09


15Jul09


Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Wow Patrick, yours look great!

Linda
ne AL
zone 7b

I've been posting on Ward's more current thread about the progress of our Yvonne's Salvia remembrance gardens, but I want to return to this thread with this latest pic, taken yesterday. That way you can compare previous photos with the new one.

If you look close, you'll see I'm nearly hidden in my usual place in the background. Some of the blooms have exceeded the 6' mark! I'm really pleased - I hoped for at least 5'.

I found that plants somewhat crowded together grew the tallest. My patch has 22 plants, spaced about 18" apart and in rows maybe 22" - 24" apart. The outer plants had room to spread a little and are shorter than the plants in the middle. I put a few individual plants in other locations and they grew only about 3.5' tall. A mass planting seems to be a great way to go for a big impact and tall plants.

Please post photos of what yours have done. I know that not everyone had space to dedicate a whole bed to this memorial effort, but size isn't the whole story. Let's show pics of where all Yvonne's Salvias have been grown this year in remembrance of Yvonne. Thank you Emily, for proposing this effort & helping make the seeds available to so many.

Photo taken 09-09-09:






Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Sorry Patrick - no camera. And by the way, in this last picture you look as good as you have ever looked.

My row is about 4 feet tall and about as wide and in full screaming red. A voluteer in the tomato row is about 5 feet tall squeezed in between two tomato cages and a Van Remsen guaranitica. They aren't the first hummingbird choice, but they do get used.

Someone needs to work with this plant. It would be nice to see Yvonne's in other colors like purple, orange and pink. We should all be on the long out. None of the other splendens are nearly as easy to grow or set seed so readily as this one.

Your photo also reminds me of someone sinking in molten quicksand.

WOW, Patrick!
The seeds I planted failed to germinate, possibly due to it being very dry and my being grounded and not watering when needed. There was one 'plant' by itself, that could have been one, as it got over 6' tall, with no blooms, so since it looked a bit ridiculous, I pulled it out....
I am willing to try again, with a mass planting.

OK, so in keeping with the theme of sinking in molten quicksand, I snapped this picture tonight. I am 5'7" tall, and that's about the height of most of my plants...no six footers yet this year, as the growing season comes to a close.
The blooms filled out nicely, but the plant wasn't as bushy as in past years. As many of you who live around here know, it was a less than ideal growing season for the sun loving plants!
[IMG][/IMG]

Patrick, that canna to the left, with the really tall spike is the peach gigantum -- which put forth a lovely bloom this year!

Anyone in the deep south had great success with the Yvonne's? I knew mine looked crappy and scrawny. Didn't discover until today that the sprinker head there had gotten screwed up and they hadn't been getting any water. well duh! Man I hate letting stupid things like that happen!
dell

Emily, my Peach Gigantum canna also did well this year. It currently has 4 bloom spikes & I watched a hummer working the flowers this morning. I really love that canna. Mine shared the bed with the salvias and appeared in several of my pics.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Thank you Ward...I thought that was one of my better photos...I was feeling photogenic, so thought it was appropriate to get myself in the pic...lol.

Hmmm, molten quicksand?! That image gives one pause to contemplate. My mind goes off to thoughts of human sacrifice to the volcano. In Emily's pic, I'm not sure if that's her waving from behind the firey red "lava"...or could that be Madam Pele?!

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Patrick and Emily those are some wonderful pictures of what that salvia can do. I am going to work on trying to make a display of them next year. I have never grown mine in ideal conditions.

Patrick and Emily...Spectacular!! I'm impressed!

Mine in my new memorial garden so far are only about 4 ft, but loaded with blooms and have been getting lots of attention from the hummers all season. I also lost a couple of plants due to the wind snapping them off at the base before I got a chance to stake them. Right now, they look a little parched (just went out and took this pic) so I'm off to water.



Next year, I plan to expand the size of the garden, add lots more compost and fertilize more often to achieve results more similar to yours Patrick and Emily.

I have a question for Patrick and Emily...do you deadhead yours when the blooms have exhausted themselves or do you leave them?

And a thank you to Emily for sending me some Yvonne's seed. I'll keep them going here for sure. An update to let you know, the Coral Nymph have been a hit with the hummers and doing well...a definite keeper tho I didn't doubt that it would be. The delph and zinnia did well too. A great addition to the gardens! Thank you!

Roxy
West Niagara,
Southern Ontario
Canadian Hardiness Zone 6b

Roxy, I don't deadhead mine. Many of the older stalks become hidden in the foliage as the stems continue shooting up past them. I would remove some flower spikes if they get bent over or start to look unsightly, but most of mine that are on the top of the plants stay red for a long time. When fall comes, I clip off spikes to collect seeds...if it's been rainy, I take the spikes indoors to dry thoroughly, then the seeds loosen up nicely so I can shake them out.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Roxy, I don't deadhead, either. As I think of it, it is one of the very few plants that I don't ...!

It seems to hold its blooms for quite a while, and, by the time it is time to "deadhead," it is time to collect seeds, which is what I have started to do this week. Even now, with some of the stalks turning brown, the display looks good.

I'm so glad the other seeds I sent you were a success too! I love that Coral Nymph salvia. Thanks for letting me know!

Emily

Thank you very much for the tips Patrick and Emily. That could be a reason mine didn't get so tall. I did deadhead and they haven't gained any height since I started doing it. Two others I have growing in another garden that I've left alone are about a foot and a half taller than the ones in the memorial garden. So next year, no deadheading the Yvonne's!

Thanks!

Roxy
West Niagara,
Southern Ontario
Canadian Hardiness Zone 6b

Patrick I just noticed the hand sticking out behind the plant !

Zone 6b New Jersey

visit my hummer photos athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/38829896@N00/

Wow!

Yvonne's is looking absolutely great this year!


I wasn't real fond of it last year when I planted it but I am sure it was too late.

Although if it grows that tall for me I'm in trouble with the township


I may try a patch in my backyard next year.

Thanks for sharing the pictures... I definitely enjoyed the hand in those of you shorter than the Yvonne's!

Vicki Wozniak
Edgewater Park, NJ

Wow, wow wow! What gardens you all have!