Salvia ' Purple Rain '

Beautiful purple!

Great. Think my salvias will flower soon.

Now that looks very like one I have Amy, grew some mixed seeds from plantworld several years ago, got sooo many different varieties, still trying to identify a few, its lovely, off to get a picture to see what you think.

Kathy, you sent me seeds of Salvia sclarea turkestanica, I cant wait for them to flower. Well I think this is what they are, lol. They have huge leaves?

Kathy sent me some seed as well Dawn 'Turkestanica ' I'm like you I can't wait to see the flowers , they are huge , I go to look at them everyday ,I've never seen any like it !

Are the leaves quite flat to the ground Amy and huge and dark? So exciting seeing new plants that you've grown actually flower.

Mine are about 2ft high Dawn , the leaves are huge and the buds are very big as well .. I can't imagine what the flowers will be like , your Scotch Thistle is taller than me it must be at least 6ft tall and has masses of flowers to come I'm excited about that !

Oh Amy, my Salvias (if thats what they are) are still ground level, lucky you.

Arent the Scotch Thistles a beautiful grey colour, I've had to stake one of mine with all the winds. Mine have lots of thistle head buds (lol), cant wait, can you.

I'll take a photo one day for you to see Dawn, I think my thistle is fairly well protected by the shrubs .

Thanks Amy.
Glad yours is still vertical, looks like they can tolerate dry conditions.

perhaps thats what they like Dawn it's been so dry here , we did have one tiny shower today but that was it , out with the hose again tonight :o(

Oh Amy, its crazy isnt it. You cant even get your big new water butts filled, can you, tut. The watering game is so time consuming too, I've had to water lots today too.

The salvia sclarea are great plants, the buds amaze me how the change, I'm becoming a bit obsessed with them lol,have a deep purple 'Piemont' and growing a white this year, glad they're doing well for you both:-)
Bet that was a battle with the thistle Dawn remember having to do that with mine, pretty vicious spines, ouch.

They obviously like dry weather Kathy my Salvias are doing so well , makes me think that I should be looking at more of this kind of plants if our weather conditions are changing .......

Yes, Kathy, staking a thistle is ouch, ouch, ouch, lol.

Thinking about it, I set your Salvia sclarea last year, so maybe these are the ones with the big, huge, flat leaves?

So exciting, waiting to see all these plants grown from seed develop.

Yes my salvias are all doing really well too, have you had any rain yet Amy, we've had a few heavy showers but the ground was dry again an hour later so not done much good, everythings still whilting.
They do have big leaves Dawn slightly furry? if they were sown last year they should have a flower spike by now mine have, they do have leaves up the flower stem too.

Thanks Kathy, I will check again tomorrow and maybe post it a pic.

Dawn just remembered another salvia seed I sent you,that does have really huge leaves 'Forsskaolii' or wood sage, remember thinking it would be good in your wood(although it grows just as well in sun) could be that one, I'll watch out for your picture:-)

We had some rain yesterday Kathy in the evening for about half an hour but it was a very light rain and was only enough to dampen the leaves , better than nothing though .. we are officially a drought area !

You did Kathy, I remember now. I'll get a pic or your ID :)

Amy, are you on a hose pipe ban now then :(

Dawn we just had a huge clap of thunder and it poured with rain for a few mins, but it's stop already ,I hope we have some more soon, we're not on a hose pipe ban but we have been told to only use a watering can!

Lol, so you can fill the can with the hose, I can see where they're coming from though. I like a good thunder storm but accompanying rain helps, lol. We should all get some rain tomorrow, fingers crossed.

I hope it rains all night , we are due to look at some gardens tomorrow afternoon so a break would be nice for a couple of hours if not it will be rained off , but then it's more important at the moment to have the rain .

I think this is the one we have, with massive leaves, it has just come out. On reflection it is not the same.....ours is Turkestanica.

I have the Turkestanica Dd , it does have massive leaves ,Kathy sent me the seeds last year I can't wait to see it in flower it has some huge buds on it ......... Dawn had some as well !

Just to add to the Salvia confusion, Kathy reminded me she also sent me S. Forsskaolii which also has huge leaves.

That is confusing Dawn Lol will you know which is which when they come into flower ?

No, lol. We'll have to rely on Kathy. I did a search on here for S ForsskaoLii and kathy has a pic of it in flower.

Ours is out now, but it is dark and it is still tipping it down so I will not be going out to take a pic lol will post tomorrow and now you have me wondering which one I have?

Lol Looks as if you are in for a lot of surprises Dawn , we shall be looking forward to seeing yours Dd :o)

Mine are still in bud, I 'll post pic when out