Thank you Lyn! You might have convinced me to plant them out. Any advice on how to protect it in winter when it's in the ground? My understanding is that they need protection. I would plant them in the gravel garden (no other space that would suit them here). The gravel garden gets full sun in winter... well, more like 10am-3pm. In summer it's full sun 9am-4pm. When we moved here last December all of the shrubs - several roses, huge lilacs, and a small tree - have died in this patch and I found lots of wet rotting roots in the soil with a strong fungal smell. In spring, I dug up the soil in places and added organic manure topsoil before planting out some perennials. The soil looked kind of dead - no single earthworm it's clay soil, not too heavy, but still not ideal for a gravel garden. I know the plastic cover is very unhealthy for the soil, sadly I can't remove it because it's a rented property. Also, I've heard that fungus is usually going for woody plants, hence my previous hesitation to plant them out. Any advice?
I grow shrubby salvias in the ground in full sun (bit hotter here!) but do find they need a hell of a lot more water than I thought they would... and yellowing leaves from the bottom is normal and nothing to worry about. Mine are mostly red greggii plus purple Nachvlinder. Its possible the pink one you have is a bit more delicate, perhaps, but I don’t think it looks too bad at all!
Your ground conditions don’t sound ideal to plant out, I think a much wider pot (but not taller) in the gritty soil mix others have already recommended, would give them space to fill out. Also I give mine a haircut in Spring to keep them neat and bushy, plus chop back any sprawling stems anytime they get out of control - they do like to spread out, given the opportunity...
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
I agree with Nollie, they need good drainage, especially in the Winter, so l think your soil is out. They don't look too bad in your second photo, mine always get a few yellow leaves. A bigger pot is the way to go !
Thank you Nollie! Can I ask, do you feed your Salvias at all?
I just remembered that last year I had them standing in water trays which I forgot to remove after going on holidays early August and they really loved it. I emptied the trays every now and then to let the roots dry, and removed them when the weather got too wet. Your Salvias are similar to me, but I see you are in Spain, that would be a very different climate to our here in the South East of England. How often do you water them?
I also remember having my large lavender pots standing in trays of water for at least a month, which, one would think, should have damaged the roots, but they absolutely loved it. All of my pots have additional drainage at the bottom, so maybe it was creating some sort of microclimate around the pot with humidity that suited them. I will follow the suggestion to plant them into wider pots with appropriate soil and then amend the watering. If they don't recover I will plant them out, just because I don't want to waste too much water trying to be a sustainable gardener
If you decide to plant them out, you could take some cuttings. They root easily (there's another thread about it somewhere) so you would have some young plants for your pots next year.
Edit: salvia cuttings discussion is in this thread, on the 2nd page
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Hi, no I never feed them, but they are in a border and probably sneak a little bit of what I feed adjacent roses! I tend to water very deeply, twice a week, but if they were it pots I would probably need to water every other day here.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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Your ground conditions don’t sound ideal to plant out, I think a much wider pot (but not taller) in the gritty soil mix others have already recommended, would give them space to fill out. Also I give mine a haircut in Spring to keep them neat and bushy, plus chop back any sprawling stems anytime they get out of control - they do like to spread out, given the opportunity...
They don't look too bad in your second photo, mine always get a few yellow leaves. A bigger pot is the way to go !
I just remembered that last year I had them standing in water trays which I forgot to remove after going on holidays early August and they really loved it. I emptied the trays every now and then to let the roots dry, and removed them when the weather got too wet. Your Salvias are similar to me, but I see you are in Spain, that would be a very different climate to our here in the South East of England. How often do you water them?
I also remember having my large lavender pots standing in trays of water for at least a month, which, one would think, should have damaged the roots, but they absolutely loved it. All of my pots have additional drainage at the bottom, so maybe it was creating some sort of microclimate around the pot with humidity that suited them. I will follow the suggestion to plant them into wider pots with appropriate soil and then amend the watering. If they don't recover I will plant them out, just because I don't want to waste too much water trying to be a sustainable gardener