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Cultivating Place: Ernie Wasson And Salvias

Salvias are among my favorite of flowers. Do I say that about a different plant group just about every other week? It could be. Let’s say then that this week, this time of year, salvias are among my very favorite of flowering plant groups. And it’s a big and diverse group, so you’re not bound to get bored with them any time soon. In my current suburban garden – small no matter how you slice it – I have nine salvias and counting. In some of our recent Cultivating Place conversations we have heard of the value of salvias for pollinators and habitat and the many native salvias in California.

Today we’re going to dig a little deeper into this well-loved cornerstone herbaceous perennial with Salvia expert Ernie Wasson.

Now retired and enjoying life in the garden and on the trail in far northern California, Ernie’s career was spent as a gardener, horticulturist, author and educator at international, college and community levels. He was the American Co- Chief Editor for the North American edition of the 1997 botany publication “Botanica.” He built and curated a remarkable teaching garden including an enviable collection of salvias at Cabrillo college in Aptos, Calif. Ernie took part in the first two International Salvia Summits over the past 10 years. A third summit is being held this fall at Tilden Regional Park in Orinda.

As always, you can find more at JewellGarden.com.

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Jennifer Jewell is the creator and host of the national award-winning, weekly public radio program and podcast, Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History & the Human Impulse to Garden, Jennifer Jewell is a gardener, garden writer, and gardening educator and advocate. Particularly interested in the intersections between gardens, the native plant environments around them, and human culture, she is the daughter of garden and floral designing mother and a wildlife biologist father.