Identification Needed - Red Flower Plant From "Wild Flower Mix"

[Nifty]

4 years ago our daughter planted a 4" pot of "wild flower" mix. It's turned out to be a goldmine of wonderful flowers that keep showing up every year. We keep transplanting to bigger areas and the beauty keeps flourishing... maybe almost too much!

Here is one plant that keeps popping up every year in mid-summer and flowers beautifully. It propagates super easily and we're finding it all over.

Any ideas what it is?

 

[journey11]

A type of salvia , perhaps... Very pretty.

 

[so lucky]

That would be my vote, too. I planted some pink salvia similar to that about 5 years ago. The stalks have more sparse flower buds than the regular salvia we find in garden centers. But my pink ones are very prolific, also. Too much so, in fact.

 

[catjac1975]

Agree. Save the seed for next year.

 

[897tgigvib]

That is Salvia. I think the variety called Scarlet Sage, but yours has an even deeper colored flower stem than those I remember, and more beautiful. Ya know, I think there are several species of Salvia that go by the name Scarlet Sage. Seems like each year at the greenhouse that I worked at in Montana we'd get a different kind of Scarlet Sage from the shipments we got from Moss, the plant company in Idaho. Sometimes they'd be the sophisticated low growing plants that were either annuals or just tender quick perennials, and other years we'd get the true tall perennials that the leftovers gave a decent survival rate through the winter after cutting back. Another year we got what I think was a biennial that did not flower until the next year.

A pressed and crushed leaf should have a nice little spicy aroma if it is a Salvia. Only a few Salvias have little or no aroma. If there is no aroma at all to the crushed stem or leaf, well, next thing to check would be Penstemon.

Salvias are in the Menthaceae Mint family, and most of them smell like that's where they belong.

Penstemons are in the Scrophulariaceae Snapdragon family. In case it is a Penstemon, there will be no spicy aroma at all to a crushed leaf or stem. When a Penstemon sets seeds the seeds are in a small quarter inch diameter pod, unlike a Salvia's seed which sticks to the stem that needs to be rubbed between hands over a plate several times and then lightly winnowed by blowing the chaff off and picking heavier chaff out with fingers.

I'm leaning to it being Salvia, but check for aroma.

 

[thistlebloom]

I was leaning toward sage also, but some penstemons are similar, as Marshall said. In your photo it looks like it has a square stem, putting it in the mint family.

Autumn Sage maybe, Marshall?

 

[Nifty]

Wow, thanks everybody! I LOVE how much knowledge is found in this amazing group.

I unfortunately didn't get any notifications of the replies to this... maybe I should talk to the site admin and give him a piece of my mind!?!? (on second thought, I noticed I wasn't subscribed... whoops)

I delegated to my wife to go out and do the smelling since I have a cold right now. She said it does have a slight "spicy" smell... not so much minty. She's not sure if it smells more or less than other plants would. So, basically she's no help at all.

I was wondering about propagation since I don't think I've ever noticed any seeds from these... but they are growing all throughout the various planter boxes that they have been in, so I know they are SUPER prolific!

Ever since reading about morning glories and how their beauty masks how easily the spread and how hard they can be to get rid of, I've been nervous about other pretty flowers that grow and propagate easily.

 

[Nifty]

BTW, I'm now subscribed.

 

[897tgigvib]

Nifty, Salvia seeds are not very noticeable. They just kind of stick to the stem and are small.

If you want to do a vegetative propagation it would be done the same as a Penstemon anyway, whether it is Salvia or Penstemon.

Wait until winter when it has basically died back and the base part near the roots just seems to be sleeping, dormant. It might have some green to it still even dormant in a nice winter zone. On a wet or moist soil day preferably, have where you will want to plant 2 to 5 small Salvias prepared. Dig your Salvia up. Shake the soil loose. You can dip the roots in water. Using a serrated knife, go ahead and cut it into 2 to 5 segments, making sure each segment has a solid little twig and well attached roots. With experience doing this a person does it kind of fast and without worry. The main thing an inexperienced person has is worry. To alleviate the worry, I suggest making one segment that is about half the plant. With the other segment, see how many more you can make. It depends on how big and healthy the plant is.

It is called "dividing".

 

[Nifty]

Thanks Marshall!

My guess is that as we've moved these from location to location that they have been "dividing" every time and spring up all over the various places we've had them. I guess there could have been some seed propagation as well.

We're having a heck of a time determining if they are Salvia or Penstemon. Should I take some closer up pics of the leaves? Stem? Flowers? What would make it easiest to differentiate?