Sage Plants For Gardens: Learn About The Different Kinds Of Sage

Sage Plants For Gardens, For some people, the holidays wouldn’t be good without the traditional sage filling. Although we are more familiar with culinary sage plants, there are many different sages. Some types of sage plants also have medicinal properties or are grown exclusively for ornamental purposes. All of these wise plants work well for gardens. Read on to learn about the wise plant varieties and their uses.

Types of sage plants

There are many different types of salvia or sage plants available. They can be perennial or annual, a flower not to flower, but practically each of these different types of sages is quite hardy.

The foliage comes in sage green, variegated, purple/green, or variegated, and the flowers range from lavender to bright blue to cherry red. With so many sage varieties, there is likely a variety for your landscape.

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Culinary wise plants

The garden or common sage ( Salvia officinalis ) is the most common type of sage used in cooking. You can also make tea from the leaves. It is very hardy and bounces back in the spring, even after a freezing winter. This particular sage has soft green and silver leaves that can be used fresh or dried. It is also known to attract beneficial insects attracted to its purple-blue flowers.

Although hardy, garden sage usually becomes too woody after a few years to produce many aromatic leaves, which should be replaced every 3-4 years. That said, I had a very woody sage losing its vigor, so I dug it up last year. This year, I have new soft leaves coming out of the ground. Hardy, in fact!

There are several common varieties of garden sage plants.

• A smaller dwarf does not exceed a foot in height and blooms with purplish-blue flowers.
• A purple garden sage whose leaves, as the name implies, are purple when young. The purple sage doesn’t often bloom like some other garden sages.
• The golden age is a creeping sage with variegated gold and green leaves that accentuate other plants’ colors.
• The tricolor garden sage looks a bit like purple sage, except that the uneven variegation includes a white accent.
• Lastly, there is the Berggarten sage of the garden sages, which is very similar to the common sage, except that it does not bloom, but it does have the lovely silvery soft green leaves.

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Wise ornamental plants for gardens

Pineapple sage ( Salvia elegans ) is a perennial flowering sage with tubular red flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Today, this beauty is grown primarily as an ornamental, but it is said to have medicinal uses.

Grape-scented sage doesn’t smell like grapes but rather freesia. It can be quite tall (8 feet by 6 feet). It is a late flowering plant that attracts hummingbirds. The leaves and flowers can be soaked to make tea.

Another common sage among gardeners is Salvia splendens or scarlet sage (salvia). This is an annual plant that thrives in full sun but supports partial shade in well-drained soil with constant irrigation. The flowers are scarlet in color and last from late spring until the first frost.

Mealycup sage is generally annual in most regions. It reaches a height of 2-3 feet and is dotted with spikes of blue, purple or white flowers. Some newer varieties to look for are ‘Empire Purple,’ ‘Strata’ and ‘Victoria Blue.’

Mexican sage ( Salvia leucantha ) grows to 3-4 feet, is drought tolerant, but a tender perennial otherwise. This beautiful accent plant has purple or white flower spikes.

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There are many other varieties of sage plants for the garden (too many to name here), whether you want them for their aromatic foliage or as an ornamental, or both. Sage plants are a great addition to the garden and with so many varieties, you are sure to find one to suit you.