I grow a few salvia greggii. They get kind of tall and wirey (<--is that a word). I'd like to try to get them a little more compact and bushy. I have cut them back a little to try to get more compactness to them. They seem to just go back to tall and wirey. Can you cut them back to say--1/2 way without hurting them?

Duane, you can cut salvias back that much and I think S. greggii is one that sometimes needs a hard pruning. Early spring is a good time in warm climates. But I'd like some other opinions on this.

You can cut back 1/3 to 1/2 in early Spring and I usually cut back in mid-summer also, though not as much.

Thanks for chiming in, Sherry. I was hoping you would.

Well, it just reminds me that I have a lot of stuff out there that still needs cutting back...sigh..

Does it matter before/after buds emerge or before/after flowers open?

As a separate question, I would like to collect seds from several species of Salvia that I established last year. Is there any method or technique that increases the amount of viable seeds I'm likely to be able to collect? Last year I saw many fresh blooms, but seldom saw things that looked like dry seed pods (I'm guessing they opened or fell off as soon as they were ripe).

Do I have to bag the flowering stems?

I've clustered each species close together, but only had 1-2 adults of each last year (except for 'Lady In Red').

Where I have two varieties of one species, one variety goes into the back yard and the other variety goes into the front yard. EXCEPT for 'Lady In Red' and 'Coral Nymph' - both Salvia coccinea. Those are only 10-15 feet apart, due to having too many S. coccinea varieties germinate indoors.

Duane, wiry is, indeed, a word. Good one, too.

You want to cut them back in early Spring to have a bushier, more lush plant and more flowers and to keep them from becoming more woody. Try to cut them back before flowers...more flowers bring more seeds. Seeds need to be harvested quite often because they fall out and/ or birds get them.

As far as collecting salvias seeds, I've found that some types are very easy to get like-- furman's red and coral nymph. Some others are few---like black and blue, and some harder to separate like-- azurea var. grandiflora.

Same here. Does anyone bag their seed heads?

>> Seeds need to be harvested quite often because they fall out and/ or birds get them.

With most flowers, I know when to start snatching seeds becuase the heads or pods turn brown, but I didn't notice that happening with Salvias. I'll watch closer this year, and maybe just take one stem indoors, from each variety, every so often, and see what I can pick out of it.

Last summer was quite mild, and the Salvia that did well seemed to bloom continuously, though not profusely, all summer.

I forget if I listed the varieties that made it into the garden:

Salvia coccinea 'Lady In Red' (many, vigorous)
Salvia coccinea 'Coral Nymph' (several, vigourous)

A few each, not so vigorous:
S.nemerosasylvestris 'Amethyst Blue'
S. transylvanica 'Blue Spires'
Salvia superba 'Violet Queen'
Salvia nemorosa "Sensation Rose"
Salvia farinacea 'Victoria' (Parks or trade)
Salvia coccinea 'Forest Fire'

Wow, Rick, you sure have a lot of Salvia.

I wish! Actually, i just have a lot of variety in Salvia seeds, and an ongoing desire to GROW some, any at all, in my garden.

For several winters, in trays, nothing sprouted or lasted long enough to make it into soil.
- I think that faster-draining seedling mix (and maybe the heat mat) saved me last year.
- And i've learned not to leave salvia in small prop tray cells: now I pot up to 3" pots as soon as the seedling has a few pairs of leaves.
- I've also become braver about feeding seedlings to the slugs since I got agressive with beer saucers in addition to bait. Now I'm willing to put them outside on the deck rather soon, and into the ground fairly soon.
- I also created a new raised bed mostly for salvia. It has improved drainage (lots of very coarse sand / grit / crushed rock and pine bark mulch to lighten the clay). Also I gave that bed a lot of coffee grounds and manure compost. So it's practically soil, not clay!

Last winter, I sowed around twice that many varieties in prop trays.

That list includes anything that came up well enough to pot up and, later, set outside. I do still see some Salvia seedlings emerge, and then fade out before I pot them up. Maybe the 128-cell prop tray is too shallow for Salvia seed starting?

Some of varieties only did well enough that one adult put out a few blooms (and I hope some of those were perennials that put their energy into roots and will come back!

I think both Lady In Red and Coral Nymph are Annuals, even though I'm in Zone 8b and we had a very mild winter. They had many flowers, and I know they set seed becuase I collected some hard black seeds from both. I think and hope they dropped 10 times as many as I collected, and will come back in the garden, from seed.

This winter I was too busy and scattered to start anything indoors!

I just got through planting some today! Forgot the name. You got it going on Rick, it's defiantly a learning experience. I am determined to not let it get complicated. I like winter-sowing, this year got sprouts too soon and then they froze but a few did make it. Got my window-seal greenhouse from Jiffy. Hate Pete pellets, they won't work for me. Love the little pete-cups, you can just plant the whole thing.

Rick: My Lady in Red didn't come back either, but s. Maraschino and s. greggii both are hardy here. My Black and Blue returns faithfully every year and the hummers love it. So do the bees and butterflies.

Coral Nymph is an annual. It self seeds, so I don't bother saving the seeds, just let them do their thing.

I always get a few volunteers from Coral Nymph, too. Such a pretty color, and the hummingbirds love it.

Karen

Good to know about Coral Nymph! The seeds I planted are from Salvia, clevelandii. They have very interesting flowers. Don't know if it is a perennial or not. I kinda would like something that comes back every year and the greggii sounds real good, plus I took note of the maraschino.

>> I am determined to not let it get complicated.

You are probably smart, but something inside me makes "complicated" very appealing. Maybe after years of fiddling around happily, I will find that I HAVE to keep it simple.

I got many Salvia clevelandii seeds from Risingcreek (Kaycee). He or she said he tried many ways to start them and all failed - until he or she got disgusted and just threw some seeds on top of some clay and walked away. That worked!