The Sept strollie is up and I've put a link to last month's at the bottom of it.

MK, here are some of the other salvias I meantioned in the other thread.

aaahhhhhh, lovely stroll. thanks for the calm in my day!

Lovely to hear that Gail, thank you. That’s just what makes doing it so enjoyable.

If anyone’s wondering who ‘Becky’ is on the home page note,,, she had recently spoken to my hubby at a customer’s office in Dallas and told him she looks forward to getting new plant groupings ideas from the strollies,, and was awaiting a Sept one. So I couldn’t resist obliging. Its always so nice to hear from the otherwise unknown audience. (and to learn that there actually is one!)

After finding the new page, she wrote me about her sweet cottage garden and sent loverly pics, which I will post on the Virtual Stroll thread, under ‘our-friends-gardens’.

Hello Maggie, I'm just so jealous of your garden and all that wonderful lush growth. We have had no rain to speak of for weeks and my usually stripy lawn looks like a bed of straw.
Those salvias look scrummy, do they make it outside through the winter with you?

Hehe, now you know how we Texas gardeners usually feel in July, Aug and Sept !!!
At least there’s a pretty good bet that it will rain again one day there – the British weather being what it usually is ;-)
Or maybe not - My cous in the so of England sent me the following.


She also included this pic of the heat-beater addition to her walled patio. There maybe granbabie’s toys out there, but I bet she’s been using it more than the grandbaby! I imagine her kitties are glad to have an extra big water bowl, too. Or maybe the poor thing is considering a cooling dip.


And then there’s my friend over here that had an auto sprinkler system installed in July and hasn’t had the chance to use it yet – crazy flip-flop weather on both sides of the pond this year

I believe those salvias would do fine for you Nicola.
Here is a better shot of the baby blue one

It is S. azurea var grandiflora, hardy to minus 30F, and will be profiled in the paper next week, so it will end up on the site soon. Native to SE USA – really durable, but only blooms in autumn.
The peach is Salvia coccinea 'Coral Nymph' – an annual that re-seeds madly, and would enjoy your milder sun in summer since it prefers some shade over here.
The royal blue one is S. farinacia ‘Victoria’ hardy up to 5 or 10*F.

The salvias may make it through the cold OK but it is the wet weather here that does for them in the winter, they just rot away. Have you ever tried Salvia discolor ? It has grey foliage and a small black flower. It checks out on me within minutes of my buying it!

ooo S discolor sounds luscious. I've never seen it for sale here, but it would be good fun to try to not kill it

The S azurea has a tuber-like root and seems to be able to tolerate anything, maybe even your wet winters, since it wanders wild up the eastern seaboard here.

The S f Victoria is really susceptible to winter rot here too, if it doesn't have excellent drainage. The S farinacia species is less demanding, but grows tall and lanky by mid summer - needs cutting back for a good late-summer bloom. In fact, most of the salvias need a 'hedge trimming' by July in this climate. That's the worst bit about gardening in an extra long growing season. It's just the hardest thing to do - to cut back things in full bloom, to keep them from looking awful in what is usually late-summer for us ... Sept and Oct.
Its same pain as having to ruthlessly thin seedlings - ouch!

Another thing that does in salvias, artemisia and lavenders in winter here, is to trim them too late in the year before the cuts have a chance to heal before first frost.

Let me know if you would like to try the peachy coral annual S coccinea

Thinking of the possibility of you starting an entirely new garden, I wonder how very different or how much it will resemble the one I know so well... in as much as the new site is still unknown.. but if there are particular elements that you will want to avoid or new ones you are pondering?

I have always wanted to build a cross between a cave and a grotto. Loads of enormous rock half underground with lots of rivulets running down the walls. The reality would probably be cold, dank and smelly but I love the idea.

Oooo yes,,, I too have a passion for them! But it will never come to be in this tiny space, so I’ll have to indulge myself in yours one day. Your scheme to have water trickling down the inside walls – heaven! I would love one along the lines of Heligan’s with its spooky crystal-embedded walls. Don’t care much for dear RV’s at Barnsley House with its shell walls – its so tidy and sunny that its more like a garden room than a grotto. There is one at a garden in these parts that sits on the edge of a waterway so that a waterfall completely obscures its opening. It is heaven to escape into it in the midst of Texas heat and be surrounded by damp stone walls and a wall of cascading water. There is a sim one in the tropical house at our botanic gardens but the outdoors one is so much more stimulating. I’ll take you there when you come over. The thought of you building a grotto cave is soooo exciting!.. not to mention an entire new garden. I can’t wait to witness it!!!