Last year I bought a Raspberry Salvia from The Shrewsbury Flower Show, with wonderful bright pink flowers. I like to think I get my monies worth from any plants I buy, so for the last few years I’ve been collecting seeds and taking cuttings. Last year I took a single cutting from the Raspberry Salvia.
With the extreme winter we had I lost the original Salvia in the garden and come spring I was only left with a barely surviving twig in the greenhouse. But survive it did and the one thing I learnt from last winter is to take as many cuttings as you can, so this year I took five more cuttings from the surviving plant.
Hopefully next year there will be a border with lots of lovely pink flowers just like the one plant in the border now.
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| Salvia the twig that survived! |
Another new plant that luckily survived last winter, is the Knautia Macedonica commonly known as Knautia and pronounced ‘naughtier’. Also the Pulsatilla commonly known as the Pasque Flower. For both of these plants I have collected and successfully grown the seed. Although the Pulsatilla were a little tricky and required patience, they took 3-4 weeks and only three seeds germinated. The seeds are quite unusual looking they resemble little feathers, when you collect them you have to catch them quick from the flower head before the wind takes them.
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| Knautia seedlings |
Below you can see the original plants in situ in the garden, really pleased with the success of the Knautia sowings should have plenty to plant out next year.
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| Knautia Macedonica |
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| Pulsatilla |
