Here I show some plants I grow. I'm very interested in Salvia genus for some breeding.

Salvia glutinosa


Salvia sclarea


Salvia coccinea


Salvia verticillata


Salvia recognita


Acacia acuminata (narrow phyllode and broad phyllode)



Echinopsis pachanoi and lageniformis


Psychotria viridis

Very Nice!

I really like all of your Salvias...all of the photos are beautiful, of course. The Psychotria looks nice and healthy. Lovely garden!

Tell us something about your breeding experiments you have planned for Salvias.

Cheers!

There's evidences that salvinorin A is byosynthesized from salvinorin B by an acetylation enzyme.
Some species have high level of salvinorin A and low level of salvinorin B. Others the opposite.
This suggests that in the first group the responsible gene is very active and that in the second one it is not.
Salvia recognita is in the first. Salvia potentillifolia and cryptantha are in the second. All this three species have 8 pairs of chromosomes, and are phylogenetically close each other.
I think is very probable that they are cross-fertile, and that their offspring will be fertile too.
I hope that the active acetylation trait of recognita and the high production of salvinorin B of potentillifolia or cryptantha can be inherited by some of their descendant.

Salvia divinorum, sclarea and coccinea have 11 pairs of chromosomes.
Salvia coccinea is not very vigorous, can stand light frost and is phylogenetically close to divinorum. Salvia sclarea is very vigorous, can stand deep frost but is not phylogenetically close to divinorum.
Here also I hope that some offspring can be produced and that will inherit convenient traits.

I'm searching for potentillifolia and cryptantha seeds sources. They hard to find since they are not commercially interesting. I only found one seller at the moment, but the seeds I bought didn't germinate.

Thanks for sharing your rationale, Time.

It sounds like you have a plan thought out. I wish I would have something helpful to add but from what you have said so far, you know more about Salvias than I do!

Maybe some of the other Salvia enthusiasts will chime in and you can have a more in depth conversation with them!

Cheers and happy breeding!

Nice garden! I'm curious to hear about your experience growing Acacia acuminata (narrow phyllode)? I've grown a few plants but found it very finicky and I'm not sure why. Also germination was very poor (maybe 1 out of 10-15 seeds).

Just some basics. You need to soak the seeds in boiling water. Like a lot of native (southern) Australian plants the seeds are most active after bushfires.

They also don't like fertilizers (although you can give them a little bit). They don't like pots, they will thrive in ground as long as the soil is loamy and drains well. However, they have been known to thrive in clay soil if the top soil is prepared and drains well. They seem to survive being water logged for short periods but this is not ideal. They also rarely survive transplants once established in the ground.

Lovely plants!

The recognita looks very similar to Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis). Does it have a similar taste and aroma? I'm quite interested in recognita. I tried germinating some seed several years ago, but had no success. Is yours from seed? Have you tried it for psychoactive effects? I would love to hear some of your thoughts about this plant.

Lots of my Acacia previously died for lack of care. I've tried to plant some of them in the ground, but they didn't survive the winter (-10 °C minimum here).
For germination I scarify the seeds, soke them in water for a day, and put them in an humid enviroment. If they are fresh, germination rate is around 100%.

Salvia recognita and officinalis are very phylogenetically close and have very similar aroma. They look similar in appearance, but recognita leaves are more hairy, sticky and light green. Also recognita is smaller and slower than officinalis.
I've not tried recognita.
Mine are form seeds. Germination rate is poor.

Thats good to know. Salvia officinalis is one of my favorite herbs to cook with. And I really enjoy making tea with it. I've also smoked the dried leaves before when Cannabis was hard to come by. It sounds like recognita is similar to officinalis, but with some Salvinorin added in. I may have to give recognita another shot. Now if I could only get the seeds to germinate...

Yes lovely plants and inspiring ideas! I also like Salvias but only have grown a few (now I have S. officinalis amd S. glutinosa only).

I'd love to hear more about it!