It’s not too late in the summer to start salvia growing in your garden. Especially if you live in a humid climate, with the right air your plant will grow all year long. Our salvia farm has been recently swarmed by hummingbirds, which makes us question cross-pollination.
Could it be possible to cross pollinate a salvia plant with another plant giving it the same properties? There have been some studies done by different scientists suggesting that another plant could take the medicinal properties of Salvia Divinorum. To assist in studies we would like to explain the process of hand pollinating to get seeds out of your plants.
It is quite hard to normally get seeds out of a salvia plant, due to the fact they are self fertile they just replant themself when they get tall enough. When your plant is 12 inches or taller and flowers are beginning to bloom is when you can consider hand pollination. Usually the seeds are collected sometime August through October.
So when the bud on your stalk begins turning into a flower, keep a close eye on it. When these flowers open inside them will be the seeds. Your next step is going to be taking one of the purple and white fuzzy flowers and carefully rubbing it on the other flowers, turning it slowly. This is going to transfer the pollen over to the flower and pollinate it. The pollen of Salvia is quite invisible so dont be disappointed if you are not seeing it.
That process is to be repeated twice a day, for three days then you have a great chance of pollinating your flowers as they open. This is what will give you Salvia Divinorum seeds for replanting. If you have hummingbirds though, they will do all the work for you because they think it’s honeysuckle. Hummingbirds are cheap labor!
If you have any other questions feel free to write us, we are always here to help! If you start any cross pollination experiments we would love to hear about them too!
