Salvia officinalis (Garden Sage)

A favorite of many cooks and gardeners, Salvia officinalis (Garden Sage) is a bushy, spreading evergreen sub-shrub with strongly aromatic, finely veined, silver-gray leaves. In early summer, it sends up whorls of camphor-scented, two-lipped, lavender-blue flowers on short, upright flower spikes. Grown for centuries, Garden Sage has been used for both culinary and medicinal purposes. It is a pleasantly pungent culinary herb that also aids digestion. It is a popular herb for treating night sweats associated with menopause and is frequently used for sore throats, gum infections, tonsillitis, and mouth ulcers. Garden Sage is a must for every herb garden, but it is also wonderful along pathways, in perennial borders, and cottage gardens. Its silver-gray leaves contrast nicely with the green foliage of many other plants and look wonderful when intermixed with pink flowering plants.

• Grows up to 18 in. tall (45 cm) and 24-30 in. wide (60-75 cm).
• Performs best in full sun (light shade is tolerated) in average, dry to medium, well-drained soils. Avoid excessive winter wet.
• Useful in beds and borders, wall-side borders, city gardens, coastal gardens, cottage gardens, Mediterranean gardens, herb gardens, or containers.
• Keep an eye out for sage leaf hopper, capsid bug, slugs, foot and root rots, powdery mildew, and verticillium wilt.
• Drought-tolerant and deer resistant, it is attractive to bees, butterflies, and occasionally to hummingbirds.
• Clip the foliage back in spring to promote fresh new leaves.
• Propagate by softwood cuttings in spring or semi-hardwood in late summer. Propagate by seed sown in spring.
• Native to the shores of the northern Mediterranean.