LIBERTO's SEEDS and BULBS

LIBERTO’s SEEDS AND BULBS SALVIA SEEDS 2020 You’ve probably grown a few, but the genus Salvia can easily keep you busy trying new species for the rest of your life. From drought-tolerant shrubs to cushion forming rock garden plants and tropical leafy monsters that get covered in flowers, it’s impossible not to find a Salvia that can fulfill your gardening needs. They are very easy to grow from seed and in most cases reaching flowering within a year. Follow the salvia madness but beware, once you’re hooked, it’s for life! Please scroll to the end of the catalog for sowing and ordering instructions. Listings of orange color, are new items in the 2018/2019 list. Salvia aegyptiaca 3€/30seeds Rather for the dedicated Salvia collector, this small weedy north African species has the tiniest flowers of any Salvia I’ve seen on small plants up to 20cm tall with slightly scented leaves. Salvia aethiopis 3€/30seeds Coming from plains across the Balkans and Anatolia, this biennial will provide interest with its big silver leaves in the first year, and huge candelabra inflorescences of hundreds of creamy white flowers in the second. It will self-seed in the garden so be aware of that when placing it. Salvia africana-caerulea 4€/20seeds A very useful South African sage, it will form beautiful rounded bushes that flower mainly in spring and repeat flowering during the summer according to water availability. Otherwise you can just forget to water it for months and it will still look healthy. Germinates better with smoke treatment. Salvia africana-lutea 3€/30seeds Similar to the above but with bigger grey leaves and huge flowers of a very different orange-brown color with darker calyces. Both can be cut back to the ground if overgrown. I tend to cut them back for rejuvenation every couple of years at the end of summer and then water them heavily to ensure regrowth. Germinates better with smoke treatment. Salvia amplexicaulis 3€/30seeds A herbaceous perennial native to the Balkans and further east, this resembles your classic S. nemorosa varieties but it can reach a meter in height and has a more natural feel. The flowers are dark purple-blue and contrast well with the pink-purple bracts. Salvia argentea, green leaves 3€/30seeds This form of silver sage, originally collected in olive yards near Athens, has greener leaves that are not felty as the more classic grey form. It is a biennial and in order to reach its maximum potential should be sown in spring for flowering the next year. If it is positioned in a well-drained spot and the spent flowers removed before they set leaves it can live and flower another couple of years. Salvia argentea, silver leaves 3€/30seeds Similar to the above but with silver, very hairy, felty leaves. It is also more cold-hardy than the above, as this form is found in higher elevations naturally. Salvia ‘atropatana’ (=S. virgata) 3€/30seeds A very useful herbaceous perennial that flowers in late spring and will repeat flowering in summer if cut back. It forms beautiful rosettes in late winter and spring of big, green, rounded leaves that late give rise to very upright flowering stems with purple flowers. It is very drought tolerant in a Mediterranean climate, but will not look great in its summer dormancy if left unwatered. Although this plants goes around in the trade as S.atropatana, it is not in fact the true species but one of the many forms of the widespread S.virgata. Salvia barrelieri 3.30€/20seeds I find all North African sages to be beautiful and different and this is certainly both. A herbaceous perennial with big basal leaves that give rise to little branched flower spikes of up to 2m with big, ´hooded´ blue flowers. A very architectural plant that can act as an exclamation point in your planting. It can be very drought tolerant in xeric conditions, sometimes going completely leafless in the summer and coming back with the first rains of autumn. Salvia blepharophylla 4€/10seeds One of my favorite New World Salvias, for its ability to create great groundcover in semi-shady positions that are covered in fiery red flowers in bigger or smaller numbers throughout the year. At the end of winter I give it a good cut down to the ground (you can even mow it) to produce new foliage, although it is not necessary. Salvia 'Blue Note’ 3.30€/20seeds A small rounded shrub with tiny leaves and hundreds of small purple-blue flowers for months on end. Salvia brandegei 'Pacific Blue' 3.30€/30seeds One of the Californian bush sages with very aromatic foliage and heavily clustered flowers spikes of blue flowers. Very drought tolerant as all its Californian relatives. Salvia caespitosa 5€/10seeds Suited only for a rock garden, as it requires perfect drainage, this small Salvia from Turkey creates a small mound of leaves on which sit big white and pink flowers. Salvia candelabrum 4€/10seeds A medium sized shrubby Mediterranean sage, with elongated entire leaves and long spikes of dark purple flowers with white markings. Salvia candidissima 3€/10seeds A plant suitable for a gravel or rock garden in a colder climate as it doesn’t take well the summer heat of a Mediterranean climate because of its higher elevation origins. It generally resembles a dwarf silver sage (S.argentea) to which it is related but with a more perennial character and mat forming habit. Salvia caudata 3€/20seeds Also known as ‘El Cielo Blue’ , this Mexican shrub forms a medium size shrub with big green leaves and numerous 30cm blackish spikes with small bright blue flowers with white markings. It tends to flower when the weather is cooler and the nights are longer. Temperatures around 0 Celsius will bring it to the ground but it will resprout from the base in spring. It is surprisingly very long lived. Salvia ‘Chateau Cathare’ 3.50/30seeds A very low growing hybrid, presumed to be a cross between S. lavandulifolia and S. officinalis. Very worth growing as a ground cover (but don’t expect it to run much, it builds up in time). As this is a hybrid, who knows what will result from these seeds! Salvia chrysophylla 3.50€/20seeds One of my favorite Turkish species for its ability to withstand drought in the summer and still look fresh. Apple green leaves (I’m still wondering about the ‘chrysophylla’ part) and spikes of big bicolor light blue and white flowers. Salvia coccinea 3€/50seeds A great annual or short-lived perennial for a watered garden, this Salvia self-seeds readily in all the right spots – and if it does in the wrong one it is easy to pull. Spikes of red flowers all throughout summer and autumn. Salvia cyanescens 3€/20seeds Another Turkish favorite, S.cyanescens has rosettes of hairy silver leaves and multibranched spikes of light purple-blue flowers in spring. Very drought tolerant plant. Salvia darcyi 3.30€/20 seeds If I had to only have one Salvia for my watered garden, this would be the one. Reliably long lived, it disappears underground in the winter but from late spring through fall it unstoppably produces its brilliant big bright red flowers. Give it space as the stems can get quite large throughout the growing season, even though the rootstock will remain compact. Salvia deserta 3€/20seeds A nemorosa type of Salvia from the steppes of Kyrgystan, this has the typical perennial form with low foliage that give rise to upright branched inflorescences with numerous purple flowers. Salvia desoleana 3.30€/20seeds From Sardinia, and with pungently aromatic leaves, this sage performs best under severe drought. Resembling a giant clary sage (Salvia sclarea) it has stems that will grow and remain upright (and up to 2 meters!) only without irrigation. Heavily flowering from spring through mid-summer, it is loved by bumblebees and bigger Hymenoptera – it is always fun to watch a group of them feeding from flower to flower. Salvia disermas, pink variety 3€/30seeds A South African sage that looks quite different from the rest of its relatives, this is a plant to put in a very sunny xeric position to make it attractive throughout the summer. The spikes of light pink flowers keep coming all summer long. The only negative would be the spent inflorescences that remain brown and dry on the plant, so give it a good shearing once in a while. Give it space as it likes to form big mounds. Salvia dominica 4€/20seeds A Middle Eastern and Cyprus native, this wonderfully scented sage is one of the first of the Mediterranean shrubby species to come into flower (as early as February) here. Forming rounded shrubs up to 1m high, it forms thousands of white-peach flowers that covere the plant and give it a ‘cloudy’ appearance. Cut back to base when it gets too big. Wouldn’t garden without it. Salvia duriifolia x rypara 4€/10seeds A small shrubby salvia with many wiry stems rising from the base and many jewel like small azure flowers. Nice filler for the front of the salvia border and combines well with bigger flowers. Salvia farinacea ‘Henry Duelberg’ 4€/20seeds If you like the flowers of S.farinacea but hate the compactness and stiffness of the new varieties of it used for bedding, then you are going to love this variety. A bigger plant with bigger leaves and londer flower spikes of dark purple blue keeping on coming for all year long and the plant has a natural look, making it more garden worthy.

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