Salvia - suffering through a wet spring.

Oh dear, I've had a lot of people asking about their Salvia: we've had a horrible winter, and a miserable wet spring, and the Salvia are suffering.

But, as per my earlier article about micro climates, it's most annoying when most of them just die, but some of them don't.

This makes the owner wonder if it was something they did wrong - but no, the answer is just that an apparently identical plant will react differently, in different parts of your garden, and the "difference" can be a matter of just a couple of feet.

Here's an example: 

This, left, is a row of five large pots (and one odd small one, not sure what he's doing there) each containing a Salvia. 

There is an irrigation system in place, and last summer they were a glorious row.

But now, four out of five are dead.

Quite, quite dead.

However, the one at the far end, away from us....

.. is showing signs of life.

This is almost more annoying than if all five of them had died!

So why did just this one survive, albeit not very well?

They all had the same water, the same soil, they were bought at the same time: but this is the one on the end, and it must have been just a little bit more sheltered than the others. 

It might have received just a little bit more sunlight, being nearest to the opening in the wall, so it might have been just a bit more successful last year, which might have helped it to survive the winter.

Who knows.

What we do know, however, is that the micro climate can make a huge difference, and that it's not our "fault" if only one plant survives.

So what do we do with them?

The temptation is to trim the dead parts off this one in the hopes that it will recover: however, I have recommended that the Client buys five new ones, because this one will probably take months, if ever, to recover properly, and it definitely won't match the other four. This is important when they are standing in a row like this: if the plants were dotted around in a bed, it wouldn't matter if one were larger or smaller than the others.

But when they are on display like this, well, homogeny is required!

Did you enjoy this article? Did you find it useful? Would you like me to answer your own, personal, gardening question? Become a Patron - just click here - and support me! Or use the Donate button for a one-off donation. If just 10% of my visitors gave me a pound a month, I'd be able to spend a lot more time answering all the questions!!