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It's been a few years, but since summer started everything in my new greenhouse is exploding and my collection is finally starting to be worth showing. Big thanks to the Melbourne folks who helped me get a lot of these together toward the start... I'll be coming back to the meets with something to share in the near future Ephedra sinica, sprouting from fresh seed. I found a research article with a propagation technique that had a high success rate and stuck to that. Used ordinary potting mix; made small indents in the soil about half an inch deep, put a seed in each, then gently dusted over it with a 50/50 mix of soil and propagation sand to lightly cover them. Keeping them in my greenhouse for now and spraying them once a day... I will move them out soon, I'm hoping for a few more babies to pop up. I used a nice deep pot after reading somewhere here that they tend to grow roots downward rather than outward. Would appreciate if anyone can verify the ID on these! Goji. I'm surprised how resilient these are. They were both basically twigs when I got them and kept losing all their leaves every few months, but they somehow bounced back every time. I repotted them before summer and have been giving them a lot of water, and one of them has even started flowering! I don't know if this means it will fruit soon or if I need to do something to make that happen, though. Valerian? The leaves don't look right to me. I harvested this and split the root a few years back and it started growing again recently. Still not entirely sure if the valerian is making a comeback or if this is just some weed. In any case I'll find out when I try to harvest it again... I nearly fell asleep cleaning the roots last time. The oils are super potent when it's fresh. Turmeric. Woefully neglected. Honestly I thought these were dead a long time ago... I don't know why these are still alive, but I'll take it. B. Caapi is producing more vine material than I know what to do with. Also surprising me with how resilient it is... it's seen some rough days prior to my acquisition of a new greenhouse. Psychotria Carthagenensis is looking lively lately too. Brugmansias are making progress as well, with another Psychotria in the back there. Again, you can see that I had no idea what to do with these cuttings. Somehow it worked out anyway. Succulent friends... you can probably tell I had no idea what I was doing when I was potting these cuttings, but I've since learned my lesson. Progress has been slow with the trichos as a result, and I think I ought to repot them properly in the near future. The pereskiopsis only very recently started actually growing, so I might leave it alone for now. Bastard things tried to kill me when we first met anyway. And last but not least... Sally D. The only one left of about 5 cuttings... it's also seen some hard times but it's finally thriving. In case anyone was wondering, the Kava Kava didn't make it

Hello plant friends! I have a salvia plant that a member was kind enough to gift me a few years back. I have been meaning to take cuttings for some time now, as the plant appeared to not be doing as good as it could, and I don't want to miss my chance to propagate this relatively difficult to come by plant. So now in spring with a bit of humidity and cloud cover seems like a reasonable time (correct me if wrong please!). Here is the plant with some labels: And a photo taken at ~ point 1 looking back towards the pot: There is a coleus growing next to it so I labelled its branch to avoid confusion. Over the past few summers the salvia has grown one big branch that can be seen growing outwards to left of the pot in the photo. This branch is a bit woody now, so not really ideal for cuttings I guess? I have put numbered lines where I was thinking I could take cuttings on this main branch. My goal is take make the cuttings a few inches long and cut just below a node. Is this a good idea to try and make cuttings from an older branch? Or should I wait until some fresh growth comes out a few inches and use that for cuttings? I feel this plant would do better if I cut off that big branch so it could focus its energy on new grown down near the base, but it would be good to use this cut branch for propagation too. All comments, help and ridicule welcome! Cheers, Dan

I have just been alerted to this fairly new PhD thesis titled: Genetics and phytochemistry of Salvia divinorum from our very own Southern Cross University. The bottom lines are: 1) Genetics shows international collection of S. divinorum accessions to likely be of a single clone. 2) Some chemical variation exists among samples (rosmarinic acid and salvinorin A). 3) Chemical variation therefore likely to be environmentally induced. I've scanned the genetics part and it looks solid. Although nuclear DNA evidence would have been good to see. Have yet to have a close read of the chemistry work (and is less my expertise), so I'm not sure how good the science is there. There is also a nice job done on a literature review covering natural history, ethnobotany and phytochemistry of the plant.

Hey guys, Keen to buy catha edulis, all different type of poppies (gotta love the different colours) and salvia (where you've also gotta love the different colours). Please feel ffree to PM me! Thanks, EG

Hey guys just received some seed and ended out with way more than I need as always: 4x packs of ~20 Salvia apiana 2x packs of ~10 Salvia viridis (colour mix) 2x packs of ~10 Naga Jolokia chilli ...to give away, first in best dressed. I have no probs with people requesting multiple seeds as long as they'll be planted, saves me effort anyway ;). EDIT: doing the random number lottery thing instead (see below), post your preferences and in 24hrs I'll announce the winners, cheers. happy gardening -ef

Hello all I am a green horn to this wonderful site after spending several hours of spare time reading through the forums I couldnt help but sign my life away and become a member. the helpful feedback and friendly replys to matters people post is amazing. So I wish to share my idea and thoughts on what I wish to change with my garden.this past week I have invested many hours turning over and transplanting my lily gardens to bring them back to a sense of order but as they only flower once a year my gardens now resemble scorched earth with wilting lilly stalks. I had tussocs in as space fillers but they seemed to me a depressing sight so I removed them and have a massive amount of space to play with I recently had a great idea and wish to bring it to reality. I want to create a dreamy psychedelic garden for all to enjoy and admire in my area I would like to plant in a mixture of coleus blumei around the circumfrance of the garden to provide the magical kaleidoscopic colorful view. in the center row of lillys I would like to have lionstale growing at even intervills between the stalks. And then a must have is some lovely sally d at strategic areas for personal (cough) reasons. the species of plant I have mentioned are rather hard for me to find in my part of the country so any help in acquiring them would be accepted with great gratitude and would be a basis for me to help others wishing to obtain and grow such plants in my area. of course this will be a work in progress taking a season or more of nurturing and growing of seeds/ clones etc but the end result will be well worth the wait and effort involved the end result come February 2015/2016 will be a colourfull trippy looking delight of 50cm to 5-6 foot tall paradise and what better way to marvel at such a view of work with enjoying in the delights of the psychotropic offerings these plants can give Thank you.

(Not sure where to post this - mods can move this if they feel like it <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_smile.png ) Interesting article the neuroscience of about consciousness and a possible mechanism of action for Salvia divinorum, all from a researcher from the Uni of Western Sydney. https://theconversation.com/is-the-key-to-consciousness-in-the-claustrum-25390

Oh dear folk - how lovely to say hello again and bring you songs, and secrets, and schemes! For I have been kidnapped by hostile tribes, upon whom I spied, until liberated by my warriors, for enormous ransom - as such I am worth! Whilst forced into their custody, and celebrating with them the capture of such as prize, as myself, the hostile tribes of the Crocodile's became drunk upon my magic and hypnotised by my singing and did not notice how I excited their young women... (Reader's Discretion:- Text Edited - In short he craps on for half-an-hour about seducing 50 odd members of an 'enemy' tribes - not likely! - tee!hee!hee! Phaemon's Dog) Anyways when I was little I was taken up these mountains, where the Local Elders would make "tea" by making a little fire to heat stones and dropping these stones into a "coolibah" bark dish of water and this one, that They called "Mountain Sage". - How they know this one called sage? Yet they knew it as "sage" - the wise one. It was taught to me as "sage" - the special mountain sage - at a time I had heard of no other 'sage" It is strange that it is named Pityrodia salviifolia - but it rather hits the "nail on the head". More soon' Your mate' Pat Uri

Hi all, this is my first post, just thought I'd share a pic of a recent fun discovery in the garden... Salvia growing spirally! I haven't seen this before. **salvia is legal to grow where I am btw**

Good to see the research continuing to progress. And it made it into Nature! Can't get much higher exposure than that! h ttp://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-salvia-receptor-reveals-salvinorin-interacts.html