Out On A Limb / November 2006

Sage Advice for the Season

Tricolor Sage

Sage carries a history as rich as its flavor. Botanically known as salvia, sage has been treasured since ancient times for its medicinal properties. The name Salvia is from the Latin ‘salveo’, which means ‘to heal’. Today, it’s the traditional spice of Thanksgiving, for poultry and game stuffing, pork and cheese.

The International Herb Association’s Herb of the year in 2001, sage is a culinary and medicinal herb as well as an ornamental one.

It is a member of the mint family and there are more than 900 species of sage along with hundreds of additional cultivated and natural hybrids.

Not all salvias are appropriate for cooking, and many won’t survive cold winters. The sage most commonly found at holiday tables in stuffings and poultry mixes is Salvia officinalis. Hardy enough to grow in most of North America as a perennial, the small shrub has woody, wiry stems and grainy, grayish leaves.
But other very interesting varieties of Salvia officinalis includes Berggarten sage, often called Beer Garden Sage, with broad, round blue-green leaves and Purpurea, or purple sage, with reddish-purple leaves.

Salvia officinalis likes full sun, good air circulation and well-drained soil and is generally an easy plant to grow. It also comes in gold (Aurea), green and yellow (Icterina) and the eye-catching Tricolor form with white, purple and green foliage.

Purple Sage

Another type of sage, Salvia elegans, includes pineapple sage, a wonderful, large plant three or more feet tall with bright green, pineapple-scented leaves and multitudes of scarlet flowers. There is also a honeydew melon sage whose leaves, when crushed, have a decidedly melon scent.

The leaves of Salvia elegans can be used in teas or finely chopped into salads, but they are an especially savory addition to cakes and muffins. Pineapple sage isn’t usually hardy enough to survive Mid Ohio Valley winters, so gardeners must grow cuttings inside over winter, or buy new plants each spring.
Although the flavor of sage is most intense when fresh, nearly all varieties of Sage elegans and especially, Sage officinalis, keep their very scent well when dried. Stored in an airtight container in a dry, cool location, the dried herbs spice meals until the next growing season.

The ornamental known as Russian sage is closely related, but not an actual Salvia. Jerusalem Sage refers is really Phlomis fruticosa and not a sage either.

The sage varieties used as herbs come from the Mediterranean and Asia Minor and have been grown in Central Europe since the Middle Ages.

Pineapple Sage

Many of the aromatic Salvia bloom beautifully as well, like Salvia apiana or White sage, a perennial of Southern California, Salvia candelabrum, a blue-flowering scented sage, Salvia fulgens or Cardinal sage, a red-flowering perennial and Salvia sclarea, Clary sage, a biennial sage with enormous (for sages) flower spikes that is quite showy. Salvia spathacea, or Hummingbird sage, is a magenta-flowering annual with huge leaves, that, like the blue flowering Salvia guaranitica, Anise sage, unfortunately, cannot withstand Mid Ohio Valley winters.

Garden Sage grows in zones 5-9 in well drained soil of almost any kind in warm, sunny locations, though they like a little shade in the higher zones. The plants average one to two feet in height. After the first year, leaves can be harvested anytime, although they are at their best before or just after blooming.

Sage quickly becomes a small woody shrub that can need replacing every 3-4 years. Frequent harvesting and pruning helps to reinvigorate the plants. A sage in its prime makes an attractive addition to herb gardens and ornamental borders. The purple, golden and tri-color varieties work especially well as edgers. The Golden sage is a variegated plant that produces quantities of striking green and yellow leaves so bright they almost seem to glow in the dark. Salvia argentea is called Silver sage for the color of its foliage.

Sage plants can be started from seed, root cuttings or transplants but the seed needs to be sown while fresh. Even then, it’s not very reliable and is slow to establish. Root cuttings can propagated by layering, laying the side branches down so that they are in contact with the soil. Sage is also happy growing in containers, as long as it has strong, direct light. Pruning after flowering keeps plants attractive and prevents them from getting too leggy. PL

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