When I was sowing salvia seeds a few weeks ago I thought I had made a mistake and planted the wrong seeds in the wrong packs. To fix the situation, I sowed a new batch of the seeds for the cultivar I feared I’d skipped.
I thought I sowed 30 ‘Lighthouse Red’ salvias in the packs that were labeled for salvia ‘Lady in Red’. This is ‘Lady in Red’ in bloom:
This is ‘Lighthouse Red’ in bloom:
Both plants grow 24 inches tall and attract hummingbirds. ‘Lady in Red’ is more delicate and understated in the garden. ‘Lighthouse Red’ is big and bold, and a clump of those bright-red flowers really makes a statement in the garden.
A few days ago the seedlings started showing their first true sets of leaves. Since each cultivar is from a different genus, the leaves are not alike. Splendens salvias have oval, dark-green leaves. Coccinea salvias have smaller, lighter-green leaves with hairy undersides.
Now that those tiny leaves have unfurled it’s become glaringly obvious that I have 60 ‘Lady in Red’ plants and ZERO ‘Lighthouse Red’ plants. To sum up, I “fixed” a mistake that never occurred, and now I’m drowning in ‘Lady in Red’ salvias.
The thought of planting even more salvias was almost laughable, but I just couldn’t go a season without ‘Lighthouse Red.’ The plants are pest- and disease-free and the bunnies never bother them. I can always count on them for some good late-season color. So, I planted 24 seeds last week. They’re going to be a few weeks behind, but maybe if I give them some TLC, they’ll catch up fast!