Hi, the time to divide these is between march and may, so that is probably the best time to move them, Derek.

Thankyou Derekm. So I will leave them where they are for now and look forward to a good show again next year. I can't get over how beautiful they are. Never heard of them until I saw them in Sarah Raven's catalogue.

Hi, I presume you know that they're only frost hardy, and if we get a bad winter they will need protection, Derek.

Hi, sorry, I've just noticed where you are, you probably wont need protection in Devon ? Derek.

No I didn't know that Derekm but will bear that in mind. We do get a few frosts here . What does 'frost hardy' mean?

Hi, frost hardy means a plant can withstand temperatures down to 23f [minus 5 c], any lower than that, and the plant could be seriously damaged, or even killed, Derek.

Doesn't often get to -5c down here but who knows in these uncertain climate times? Thankyou for the useful info.

Hi, it must be lovely not to get down to -5c, in 2010-2011 it got down to -22c where I am, fortunately we don't get that very often either, here's hoping for another mild winter, Derek.

Another question Derekm. How to ptotect them ina bad winter? Are many other salvias only frost hardy; I've bought a few this year and didn't know they are not fully hardy.

Hi, it all depends which species you have, there are about 900, ranging from annuals, biennials, herbaceous and evergreen perennials, and shrubs, a few are fully hardy, most are frost hardy, and some are frost tender, which need a minimum winter temp of about 45f, so without knowing which species, and cultivar you have, it's impossible to say, [I would err on the side of caution, and presume that they are at best frost hardy], as for protection, a good mulch of 2-3" of well rotted farmyard manure of garden compost, or even bark chippings, grit, cocoa shells, should be enough if it gets a few degrees lower than -5c, if it got down to say -10 or lower, then a 4-6" layer of mulch would be appropriate, but for a really cold area a dry mulch of bracken litter up to a foot deep would be advisable, plus you can always cover any growth with horticultural fleece, or a cloche would be useful to keep off a lot of rain, if you don't have free draining soil, as a lot of plants can stand cold, but they can't stand cold and wet fo any length of time, Derek.

Thankyou so much Derek. Lots of clear info there. I'll look up my salvias individually on RHS.