November 17, 2013

Identifying Flowers – Scarlet Sage

November 17, 2013

If you’ve followed my garden posts the last few years you know I planted a pound of wild flowers and it came with no labels. This has left me trying to identify them each one by one.  Now whenever I plant something I take a picture of it’s seeds, and follow the entire journey from sprout to blossom so it’s ( in thought)  easier to identify. It takes awhile, sometimes I end up looking things up like ‘Bell like purple flower, small” It will lead me to 100+ flowers in images and then the search begins. Not easy but it is certainly fun for me.
 This weekend I finally identified one flower that just started to bloom. It’s called Salvia coccinea which is more commonly called- Red, Scarlet or Tropical Sage. It is a more southern flower seen in Southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Northern South America. It’s hardy in zones 8-10.

Hummingbirds and butterflies pollinate these flowers. They can grow to be about 4 feet tall. They tend to stay small in my yard though but are a pretty addition and are both a shade friendly and sun friendly flower. 
 It self sows into the ground and is pretty easy to grow . You can simply leave it by itself to spread it’s own seed or collect to place in another area. The seed pods are cute and after it blooms it closes up to a green pod which slowly dries and opens. 
Seed pod before it dries 
The seeds when the pod opens simply fall out like they were on a slid. It’s pretty neat. 
I collect half the seeds and let the other half fall to the ground . Next year I will have more to enjoy in the garden! 
Now is the time to think about what you want to plant in the spring. Did you know the best time to plant seeds for spring is both before a frost ? Many hardy seeds can stand frost and cold winters. Soon as the ground warms up you will see the germination start. Many of the flowers in my garden dropped their seeds all over during the fall and winter so come spring they will be plentiful! 
So find out which flowers and or plants you want next year and find out if it’s safe to lay out seeds now unless you’ve already gotten frost and snow. You can also sprinkle the seeds after a major frost ( the last frost before spring) for early flowers. 
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