Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing

15.7 in

In-row spacing

13.8 in

Between rows

17.7 in

Square-foot density

1 per square

Calendar (from your frost dates)

Sow indoors

56 days before the last spring frost

Plant out

at the last spring frost

First harvest

65 days after the last spring frost

Harvest ends

at the first fall frost

Growing

Type

Flower · Perennial

Botanical family

Mixed / other

Sunlight

Full sun

Watering

Low

Soil

Average, well-drained

Feeding

A light feed in spring, and nothing richer than that.

USDA zones

5a–10b

Frost tolerant

Yes

Flowering

May

Pruning

Leave the old growth standing over winter, then cut back to the new shoots in spring.

Overwintering

Mulch the crowns in autumn, and root a few cuttings as insurance against a hard one.

Through the year

• Mar–May Spring Growth
• May–Aug Flowering
• Aug–Oct Growing
• Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
• Jan–Mar Leaf Fall

Harvest

When

Cut spikes in cool morning from early summer to frost; culinary/herbal salvias (common sage) are leaf harvests best picked before flowering, mornings after dew dries.

What to look for

Cut flower spikes when the bottom third of florets is open; on many salvias the colored bracts and calyces hold even after florets drop, so slightly-past spikes still read well. Leaves for the kitchen: young, full-size, unblemished.

How to harvest

Snip spikes just above a pair of leaves or side shoots — salvias are square-stemmed mint family and branch from every node you cut above. Strip lower leaves, into water at once. Pick sage leaves individually or cut 4–6 in leafy tips.

How often

Shear spent spike flushes back to the foliage every few weeks; most salvias reflush in 2–3 weeks and repeat all season. Never cut woody sages back into bare old wood.

Storing the crop

Vase life 5–7 days (some floret drop is normal). Many salvias air-dry well, calyces holding color. Sage leaves dry on screens or in low ovens and store airtight for a year; also freeze well chopped in oil.

Companions

Grasses, Echinacea, Achillea, Nepeta

Pests & problems

• Capsid bug A sap-sucker whose feeding leaves tattered pin-holes and distorted shoot tips and flower buds. Damage is mostly cosmetic; clear plant debris where the bugs overwinter.
• Rosemary beetle A small metallic green-and-purple striped beetle that grazes rosemary, lavender, sage, and thyme. Shake branches over a tray to collect adults and larvae.
• Slugs & snails Slugs grazing the new spring shoots

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. ★ companion plant

• Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

• Centipedes Chilopoda
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Flat, fast, one pair of legs to a segment — and a predator, unlike the slow round millipede it is constantly confused with. It hunts slugs, cutworms, springtails and woodlice by night under mulch and stones. Learn the difference and leave this one alone.

• Frogs & toads Anura
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.

• Garden birds Passeriformes
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.

  Plant nearby EchinaceaElderberryEnglish hollyGoldenrodRudbeckiaSunflowerTeaselViburnum
• Ground beetle Carabidae
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.

  Plant nearby LavenderMintThyme
• Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.

• Rove beetle Staphylinidae
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.

  Plant nearby MintThyme
• Salamanders & newts Caudata
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Damp-loving hunters of slugs, worms, woodlice and beetle larvae that spend the day under a log or a stone and work the beds at night. Companions to the toads: they want the same damp shade, the same log pile, and the same absence of slug pellets.

• Snakes & lizards Colubridae & Phrynosomatidae
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  A garter snake works the beds for slugs and voles and a fence lizard clears grasshoppers off a sunny wall. Almost every snake a gardener meets is harmless and useful; give them a log pile, a warm flat stone and a bit of cover and they stay.

Companion planting

Good neighbors

• Cabbage Repels pests
• Carrot Repels pests
• Tomato Draws pollinators