>> I think the combination of copious rainfall and frosty mornings is not good for Salvias.
Ouch. I was hoping to establish some perennial and/or reseeding Salvias a little north of Seattle and 1-2 miles from the coast. It rains all fall, winter and spring, and we do have some frosty mornings. I created a new raised bed for them, very shallow but with crushed rock and pine bark fines to lighten the clay.
If you had to guess, do you think it would help them any to put plastic over them, like on hoops, to reduce the amount of rain they receive? I suppose that would also help any perennial Salvia that are a little tender for Zone 8.
I would leave open ends so they didn't overheat through the winter. I would expect a closed hoop tunnel to get too hot each day. Well, maybe only on CLEAR days, which are rare!
I've been considering trying to keep the rain off any of my beds that don't have perennials, just so as to avoid washing everything out of the soil.
I'm going to keep trying Salvia varieties in a variety of locations until I find some that will establish themselves solidly, either as perennials or by reseeding.
>> The ones I have in containers are easier to nurse through the winter because I can put them under the roof overhang and keep them drier.
I didn't deliberatly keep any Saliva in pots, just never transpalnted up the weakest and smallest ones from trays. Maybe next year I should "pot up" some good plants from any species that didn't come back.
I only have 7 varieties that seem to have survived their first year enough to distinguish from a few scrubby leaves on the ground. There are only a few plants each of most of those seven. (I started 8 or 16 cells of each variety, say 10-20 seeds. I pre-soak Salvia overnight so that I'm sowing "frogs' eggs" instead of seeds.
I think I started 25 varieties in trays and put out more than 1-2 healthy seedlings for 10-12 varieties, but some of those died for known reasons ("the hose didn't reach that far", or "smothered by tomato vines") and others just failed to thrive.
These are the survivors so far:
Salvia coccinea "Lady In Red"
Salvia coccinea 'Forest Fire'
Salvia coccinea 'Coral Nymph'
S.nemerosasylvestris "Amethyst Blue"
S. transylvanica "Blue Spires"
Salvia superba "Violet Queen"
Salvia farinacea "Victoria Blue"
Here are some where a few survived in my seedling trays, but seem to have vanished in the garden, perhaps from slugs:
Salvia farinacea Victoria
(Salvia farinacea "Victoria Blue"
Salvia nemorosa "Sensation Rose"
Salvia nemorosa "East Friesland"
And these just didn't come up for me in the trays:
Salvia azurea "Grandiflora"
Salvia (species?) "Blue Chiquita'
Salvia greggii "Wild Thing"
Salvia leucantha Mexican Bush Sage
Salvia splendens "St. John's Fire" (commercial seed)
Salvia farinacea "Strata"
Salvia viridis 'Marble Arch Rose'
Salvia viridis pink & purple
