I didn't see any at my local garden centre yesterday. I overwintered a decent sized one last year in an unheated, shady, greenhouse and without any heat it is in flower outside already so I don't think suppliers in their heated spaces would have any trouble getting them ready. It was still popular last year but the other colours have been diluting the amount I've seen of it over the last couple of years and perhaps it's not as popular, it's certainly been the most popular salvia (as well as hotlips) for quite some time, so people may know it's winter limitations now.
I was quite suprised as it's not meant to be hardy much below freezing but our neighbours left so in (they grow it as a hedge) and although they all looked very dead with our minus 8c, quite a few have now sprouted from the ground. I did leave a smaller one out and it was dead as was a small one in the unheated greenhouse, so they definitely get hardier with size but I'd still take cuttings to be sure.
I dig mine up every year and put them in a cold g/h, most of them have survived, and are now big plants, ready to go outside. I also take cuttings, which stay indoors over winter. They are still quite small, but are flowering.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
Mine take their chances in situ. So far the Amistad and Amante have started to grow (even the Amistad that I moved late last autumn has a shoot appearing), but not Phyllis Fancy, unless one of the lost-label cuttings is her. I've bought plants of Amigo and Pink Amistad to try this year and cuttings from Amigo are already rooted. Any that don't make it through the winter in the conditions that I can give them don't get replaced - no room for anything that needs to be indoors/in a greenhouse over winter. The free-draining soil here is an advantage in that respect but after 8 days without rain it's starting to show the down side.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
The half hardy salvias will be hitting the shelves soon! GC's just tend to roll them out after the spring bedding sales are done, I reckon. production will be geared towards getting them on display in June.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
It's odd because hot lips and amistad are the main salvias offered here. It's quite hard to find any other cultivars apart from maybe royal bumble and the blue and pink cultivars of amistad.
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I was quite suprised as it's not meant to be hardy much below freezing but our neighbours left so in (they grow it as a hedge) and although they all looked very dead with our minus 8c, quite a few have now sprouted from the ground. I did leave a smaller one out and it was dead as was a small one in the unheated greenhouse, so they definitely get hardier with size but I'd still take cuttings to be sure.
I also take cuttings, which stay indoors over winter. They are still quite small, but are flowering.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
GC's just tend to roll them out after the spring bedding sales are done, I reckon. production will be geared towards getting them on display in June.