Has anyone tried growing Salvia tubiflora? I grew it this summer and it was a beautiful plant. The plants grew about 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide and bloomed profusely from June to frost with orange/reddish colored flowers. I assumed that it would be a great hummingbird plant but the hummers rarely fed from it. I tested it several times during the summer for nectar content and it always had a huge amount. I don't understand why the hummingbirds weren't interested in it. Maybe the sugar content is low? They were growing mixed in with S. Black & Blue and S. involucrata which the birds fed from heavily but they usually skipped the tubiflora. It's a shame because it blooms so long and is so easy to grow and root from cuttings.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

Gary:

I've wanted to try this one but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm curious--Did it set seed?

Donald

Zone 4 Red Wing MN

Donald,
I never even checked to see if it set seed. It's so easy to root from cuttings that I never even thought about starting it from seed. It is an attractive plant and the hummingbirds used it a little so I took cuttings this fall so I can grow it again next summer. Maybe they will like it more next year. I did see migrants feed from it occasionaly. I will probably have extra cuttings in the spring so I can send you one if you'd like to try growing it.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

Not familiar with this one, but whenever someone brings up an interesting plant, I like to find out whatever I can about it. While I was doing that, I stumbled across this site of Chilean plants.

http://www.chileflora.com/Florachilena/FloraEnglish/HighResPages/EHZ%208003.htm

That link takes you to a profile of Salvia tubiflora, but they don't have seeds. They do seem to have seeds for sale for many interesting and unusual plants, some of which may be attractive to hummingbirds. I couldn't find any mention of hummingbirds on the site, but was able to independently confirm that some of the plants were thought to be hummingbird pollinated. There were some very interesting ones like Caiophora chuquitensis, Bomarea salsilla, Tropaeolum tricolor and also Tropaeolum brachyceras, and many others. Looks like all of these are possible hummingbird plants.

Betsy Clebsch classes it as fall and winter bloomer that can reach 9 feet tall. I am surprised to hear of it blooming all summer. Could your plant be improperly labelled? You would expect Betsy to mention a summer bloom period.

I found a website that describes research that was done on hummingbird pollinated salvias and the article does say that tubiflora is hummingbird pollinated. It does look like a classic hummingbird flower.

Ward,
There does seem to be some confusion regarding tubiflora. I ordered it online from a nursery last spring and I also ordered Salvia oppositifolia from another nursery. After I ordered them I read that tubiflora and oppositifolia are the same species. The plants were identical. A couple of websites say that the flowers are scarlet but other websites say they are orange/red. Mine are orange/red. One website that says the flowers are red has a picture of the plant blooming and it looks totally different from my plants. There seems to be a mix up somewhere.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b