SAGE-A VERSATILE LANDSCAPE PLANT
Who can resist touching the crinkly, pebbly gray leaves of the garden sage? Their texture adds so much to a landscape. Such beauty shouldn't be confined to herb gardens.
This small, rounded shrub is often grown as a perennial. It's about three feet in height with a two foot spread.
Hardy to USDA zone 5, sage can be evergreen in warmer climates. It's an ideal choice for the winter garden.
In flowerbeds its gray foliage creates a perfect background for viewing blue-flowering perennials, such as balloon flower, Johnson's Blue geranium, and blue-flowering lupines. Combine it with purple or red-leaved plants like purple-leaved lantana and purple millet.
Create low hedges of garden sage and germander. These are a welcome change from the usual spireas and junipers.
Garden sage is useful as a foundation plant. It's just the right size, and looks especially nice when planted next to red brick. The red seems to deepen the color in the gray leaves.
For the edible landscape combine sage with lettuces, Swiss chard, and other leafy greens.
Create interesting compositions by interplanting garden sage with perennials having soft textures, such as threadleaf coreopsis, also known as Moonbeam.
Sage is a perfect choice for low-maintenance landscapes. Use it in dry gravel gardens by combining it with low growing sedums. Thriving in dry areas, sage is ideal for xeriscaping. At a time when parts of the country are still in severe drought, garden sage is a good choice.
When creating container plantings for sunny spots on patios and decks consider sage for its wonderful foliage.
Several very fine cultivars of garden sage are available. Both Bergartten and Holt's Mammoth feature larger leaves than the species plant.
Heirloom gardeners will want to consider Tricolor, apparently known to John Gerard, the famous English herbalist and author. He referred to it as painted sage. This variegated form displays a wonderful mixture of colors-purple, greens, and white. The edges are tinged with white. During cool weather the purple becomes pinkish.
Golden sage or Icterina, another variegated sage, features golden yellow on the outer rims of the leaves.
The foliage of Purple sage is a mixture of purple and green.
All of these variegated cultivars are somewhat less hardy than the ordinary garden sage. They're much shorter, about a foot in height. Check to be sure they're winter hardy in your area. They aren't as vigorous, and require less pruning. During the fall months when gardens can suffer from the doldrums, the solution is to use these colorful, variegated sages and other plants with attractive foliage. These stunning sages are the perfect size for container gardens.
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