Salvias: sage gets out of the kitchen - August 2024
Sage is generally considered to be a culinary herb and a not very useful one at that: the pungent oils in its leaves are mostly used for sage and onion stuffing for the Christmas turkey.
So it comes as a pleasant surprise to find that there are several varieties of the ‘ordinary’ sage Salvia officinalis that bloom in spring which are native to the Mediterranean region, including Italy. Frequently used in Italian cooking is the broad leaf sage, often as fresh leaves fried or rolled up into meat for Saltimbocca; this variety does not have much in the way of flowers. Prune the shrub back in early spring to stop it from getting ‘leggy’ and sprawling all over the place.
A more ornamental sage that originates from the Iberian peninsular is the spring flowering Salvia lavandulifolia.
Not only does this low growing shrub make an interesting border or ground cover, but it also retains its attractive silver leaves all year and resists heat and cold bravely. A gentle trim in autumn is helpful in keeping the plant compact but far from essential. There are several varieties but I find that subsp blancoana is a good shade of blue.
Another spring-flowering sage that is native to southern Europe is Salvia argentea: as the name suggest, the leaves are silvery covered with long silky hairs. Sadly the plant is very short lived and tends to die away, leaving a nasty brown mess, only to return if it sets seed.
Biennial Clary Sage is also fleeting in its visits: if the seeds mature and spread then you should have the plant for life. Salvia sclarea is native to the Mediterranean and is resistant to heat and cold. The random nature of the plant’s propagation can produce surprises - the tall froth of flowers can appear in unexpected locations.
Hailing from the Salvia family but native to California are some very attractive sages with tall spires and tufts of flowers: Salvia apiana (white sage) and Salvia clevelandii (Cleveland sage). Unfortunately, these are not really resistant to cold and so in my Umbrian garden I prefer to grow their hybrids.
‘Alan Chickering’ is a cross between Salvia clevelandii and Salvia leucophylla. I grow it in a protected location shielded from the cold winds by other shrubs and it seems to do well. The shrub reaches about 1.5 m height and width, and I prune out dead flower spikes in autumn, if I can be bothered.
'Vicki Romo' is a cross between Salvia apiana and Salvia clevelandii. This is its first year in my garden and it appears more elegant and earlier blooming than Alan Chickering.
Mexico and California are the home of many ornamental salvias, especially the repeat flowering brightly coloured microphylla family and the greggi from Texas and Mexico. There are many to choose from and the garden centres tend not to be all that accurate in naming them or distinguishing between microphylla and greggi.
According to Olivier Filippi, the greggi tend to be more resistant to cold than the microphylla and are shorter in height, but it is really a case of try it and see. The microphylla, being more vigorous, appreciates being cut back in spring to about one third of its height; some experts recommend a second trim after the spring flowering - a sort of ‘Chelsea Chop’ - but I think it gets too hot too quickly for them to resume growth prior to autumn. I don’t get so aggressive with the shorter varieties either.
A surprising salvia which looks unreal but in fact a native of California’s chaparral, is Salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips’. It withstands any amount of heat and drought and, so far in my garden, extreme cold. I just wish it were a little less ‘in your face’.
The salvia that I find to be the most resistant against extremes of heat and cold is the dainty blue Salvia chamaedryoides, a native of Texas and Mexico. It is not such a thug as ‘Hot Lips’: this little salvia can fit in anywhere
An interesting salvia that I am growing for the first time is Salvia chamelaeagnea. and it is blooming right now. Native to the west coast of South Africa, the books say that it is evergreen and reaches 6 feet high whereas mine disappeared during the winter and is now perhaps about a foot tall but it flops over so not easy to determine. Nonetheless the flowers are pretty and I am keeping it in a pot to see how it gets on.
And now I read that Rosemary has been reclassified as a salvia, or more precisely Salvia rosmarinus. This is too bad; I cannot go changing my idea of Rosemary now after all these years. Why do they do this? Resist this pointless meddling!
The photo at the top of this page shows a mixed group of Salvia microphylla blooming in October
Many of these articles first appeared in the Castiglione del Lago monthly newsletter “Qua e là” edited by Priscilla Worsley
All text and photographs © Yvonne Barton unless stated otherwise