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George - The Garden Tortoise

The idea for this venture came about over the course of several years. I became an avid gardener in 1993 when I widened all my borders. During this time I started to propagate my own plants. As I became more successful at propagating I had more and more plants and nowhere to plant them so I made more garden borders. These eventually filled up with plants so I decided to give plants away to those who visited my garden. This was my small way of saying thank you for visiting and enjoying my garden.

As people left the garden I gave them a plant or two to take home. Some commented that they felt they were walking through a nursery garden, some wondered if I would ever sell any of the plants I grew....

Well the wondering and wait is over!

The garden is located in Northwestern Oregon. Here we have what I like to call a 'faux' Mediterranean climate. The winters are cold and wet a bit colder and wetter than a true Mediterranean climate and the summers are warm, sometimes hot, and dry. This is an ideal climate for growing a wide variety of plants.


So how did I get so hooked on the genus Salvia? Well before my eyes were opened about this genus I thought of salvias as those red annual bedding plants, S. splendens cultivars, and Garden or Cooking Sage, S. officinalis. One day while visiting a local nursery I came across a plant called Salvia uliginosa. I bought it and planted it in my garden. At first I was not impressed but as the summer wore on it put out more and more of those sky blue flowers. I decided it could stay. That fall I received as a gift a copy of The American Horticultural Society A-Z ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GARDEN PLANTS. I browsed through it and came upon the genus Salvia, my eyes were opened. As I read about these fascinating plants my hopes of growing them took a nose dive as I read that the Zones for most of the prettiest species were, Zone 9 and Zone 10. Not to be deterred I decided I would still grow these species I would just find a way to over winter them. My hunt for salvias was on. I would find them at any number of nurseries, then I discovered seedhunt.com. I had found salvia seed heaven! The first winter my kitchen became a winter garden with salvias 3 feet deep in front of the south facing sliding glass door. This went on for a few years and now the plants over winter in a cold frame. My wife is happy!


All the plants I offer have been sown from seeds or propagated from cuttings by me. The seeds I offer were collected from my garden. The plants were cared for by me in all stages of their growth. Before any plant is sold it must be of a quality that I would buy from a nursery.

Thank you for visiting my site.

Bill

The Salvia Guy