Las Pilitas, do you know this nursery?

howdy fellow californians! I am hot for fragrant sage and I keep running into this nursery when doing my research. There seems to be some confusion about this plant aka salvia clevelandii but Las Pilitas seems to have the real deal. Or is it hype?

comments on your experience with this nursery will be appreciated, as well as recommendations for another good one specializing in sages/salvia.

gracias

I order things from them from time to time--the one caution I'd give you is they do sell only CA natives, and many CA natives don't appreciate summer rain so some things you find on their site may not do well in TX. I've heard of others in TX growing S. clevelandii though so I think it'll do OK for you, although it may be a little shorter lived than it would be in a dry summer climate. But if anything else there catches your eye I'd definitely do some research on it before you buy. If you want other nurseries that specialize in salvias, check out the Agastache & Salvia forum, there is a thread or two in there from back when the forum was first created where people listed their favorite mail order sources.

I'm also curious what the confusion is about S. clevelandii--I've bought several plants from a few different local nurseries and have run across it online a few times and they've always looked like S. clevelandii. I can pretty much guarantee that whatever Las Pilitas has would be the real thing, it's a CA native and that's what they specialize in so I can't imagine them selling something under that name that wasn't really S. clevelandii.

ecrane, I can always count on you to give me a good, solid scoop. My confustion stems from the fact that allegedly, some cultivar (name escapes me now) is more fragrant that others. The dang plant is quite pungent, I can't imagine that much frag. differential, but still, I'm hot for the plant and want to get the best one right from the get go.

I did read in several places where dry is better, but people here grow in amended clay just fine. If I were really smart I would just get it locally, but that means I'd have to wait til April, gosh I hate to wait! I will ck out the salvia forum. Didn't even know we had one.

thanks

The ones I have were labeled as the straight species and they're plenty fragrant, I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's one of the stronger smelling salvias among the ones that I grow. The cultivar you're talking about is probably 'Winifred Gilman', it's supposedly a little nicer garden plant but I think the fragrance difference is probably not huge given how strong the species already smells. You might also want to consider 'Pozo Blue', it's a cross between S. clevelandii and S. leucophylla and I think it's a little more tolerant of heavy soils, although I think any of these will be shorter lived in a higher rainfall climate than they would be if you had dry summers. Las Pilitas has both Winifred Gilman and Pozo Blue so you can check out their descriptions and decide if you'd rather have one of them vs the straight species.

vossner....do you grow from seed? If so, I can send you fresh seed of s. clevelandii is you want some. I believe it can be difficult from seed, but best info I've seen lately is to sow in March-April which is when I'll be sowing this year.
Sherry

Win. Gilman, that's it. So you have straight species, huh? You just said something critical, if W Gilman is a nicer garden plant, I may focus on getting that one. It is going next to my roses, you know, nothing's too good for my roses,lol.

Sherry, so sweet of you to offer. I am generally bad with seeds and hate to take them and waste them when somebody more dedicated will try harder to make a go of it. Pls do keep us updated on your efforts when you start next spring.

I can recommend the Pozo Blue, IF you want a big plant! I've attached a picture of mine from last spring - it's about 4 years old. The fragrance is heavenly.

I live a few miles from the Southern Calif Las Pilitas nursery and get a lot of plants from them, but I would recommend you buy from a local source if possible. LP's shipping charges are a bit high - I believe partly due to the location of the nursery.

Sherry, are you sowing inside or out?

I don't have 'Winifred Gilman' so I'm just going on what I've read about it being a nicer garden plant--I'm not totally clear on the difference between it and the species. I think my plants that are the straight species are very nice and garden worthy though. They do grow considerably bigger and faster if they get more water so if you want to keep them smaller and more compact I would not water them at all once they're established. I have one that gets runoff from my neighbors' lawn sprinklers and it is easily twice the size of the one that doesn't get any runoff and is only watered about once a month during the summer. I think it'll get large eventually anyway, but at least being stingy with the water keeps it smaller for longer.

KaperC - OMG that is a gorgeous plant! I can almost smell it! I'll bet after a rain it is heavenly in summer!

Rain in summer? LOL! It smells great when I dust it off with the hose.
We once had an inspection for home insurance and they denied it because of the "weeds" at the back of the house. :-)

One person's weed is another person's wildflower! : )
WIB,
SW

kaperc, I think that is GORGEOUS

I hope it looks good this March when we have our RoundUp!!

I sow everything outside....

K, did I ask you before, or give you any of the clevelandii seed? If you're going to try the brandegei, you may want to try the clevelandii also...LMK.

I do have some clevelandii seed I got in a swap, but haven't gotten around to sowing it yet. That's why I was wondering about how to sow it. I've never been lucky with seeds! :-(

wcgypsy, have you been successful growing clevelandii from seed? about the brandegei, is the fragrance exotic like the clevelandii? exotic is the only adjective that comes to mind. pls describe if you can. thanks

I was smug last year....thought I had a flat full of clevelandii seedlings.Turned out that weed seeds had somehow invaded that flat and I had taken really good care of the weeds. I have not done brandegei from seeds yet. Will be sowing those, clevelandii and some of the other natives next month. I've so far been concentrating on other salvias and neglecting the natives, I'm afraid. Brandegei has its own wonderful scent, but no, not as pungent as the clevelandii.