Sages, Salvias, truly drought tolerant California Native plants.

California native sage species, subspecies, varieties and cultivars.

Salvia apiana,White sage

White Sage (Salvia apiana) is used as a smudge stick by many upscale white folks while whole hillsides are ripped out of the ground in California. The 'sticks'(whole bushes, roots and all) are stuffed into old, dirty Chevy, Dodge and Ford Vans and driven to New York, Portland and other far away places. White sage has been killed out of many areas of California by this practice. The main pollinators for White Sage are the humble bumblebee and small native wasps. These guys are hard little workers that bother no one but whose nectar sources have been replaced in California with weeds. They'll fly into the flower face and then crawl into the flower's neck and sip the nectar.(I've only been stung once by a bumble, I sat on him accidentally. The flower wasps are similar, no problem unless you start to smash one, then wow! They hurt! If it didn't hurt so much they'd be cute walking around grumbling (they actually swing their head back and forth like they're cursing) that they had to sting you because you're big, blind and stupid for not seeing them. White sage is a stunner if you place it in amongst a series of greens like Dwarf Coyote Brush, or in front of a rock wall with a bench in front of it where people can watch the humble bumble at work.

Salvia apiana compacta, Compact White Sage

This compact white sage looks a lot like regular white sage but it is smaller and neater. It has the same chalky white foliage and clean white flowers.

Salvia brandegei, Brandegees Sage

Island Black Sage is a wonderful form of Black Sage that grows on the islands off the coast of southern California. A kind of sprawling perennial that grows to 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide. The deep cobalt blue flowers are well liked by hummingbirds and butterflies. It has proven hardy to 10 degrees F and tolerant of clay or sand. Mix with Diplacus species., Salvia 'Gracias' and Penstemons for a showy hummingbird garden. Island black sage is fairly drought tolerant and can survive in most gardens with no water after the first year.

Salvia carduacea, Thistle Sage

Thistle Sage, Salvia carduacea, is an annual that is not available in the trade but some of you no doubt are curious as to what it looks like. It grows along the inside of the coast ranges and makes a stunning show some years covering acres in brilliant pink.

Salvia clevelandii, Alpine Cleveland sage or Musk Sage

This is a from of Cleveland sage that was found near the town of alpine in southern California. It has large blue flowers and is very floriferous. It is loved by hummingbirds. Alpine Cleveland sage is also very drought tolerant.

Salvia clevelandii, Winifred Gilman Cleveland or Musk Sage

The most fragrant of the native sages is probably Cleveland or Musk Sage, Salvia clevelandii. The deep sky blue flowers send up fireworks about the Fourth of July and last well into August attracting a crowd of party -going beneficial insects. Musk sage grows near the coast in San Diego and inland to the edge of the Anza Borrego desert. You can sometimes find it growing on nasty, south facing rocky slopes that look like an old B western, or like Afghanistan does now. You couldn't plant these slopes because there's no soil, only rock. In clay, Musk Sage is a very short lived perennial. In beach sand it is wonderful, long lived and carefree. Cleveland sage looks good and flowers in areas that may only receive 5-7 inches of rainfall. It is a very drought tolerant plant.

Salvia columbariae, Chia

Chia (Salvia Columbariae) is a lovely, annual sage that makes a great pet (ha ha chia pet) or a decent wildflower show on gravelly sandy soils. The seeds were eaten by the indigenous California people. It can be found in clean areas between the chaparral. The leaves are deeply dissected and very crinkly.

Salvia dorrii, Desert Sage

Desert sage is one tough desert-edge plant. It grows along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains from Lassen county to just Victorville area and east to Nevada in gravelly washes and rocky outcrops. This sage only grows to 2 or 3 feet but can stop traffic when it's in flower. It will die in most watered gardens, in clay, or with much winter rain, abuse it with drought and sun, and it will thrive

Salvia leucophylla Purple Sage

Purple sage is the largest sage native to California, can reach 6 feet in height in the wild. In the garden do not give it much water, as it can grow into an eight foot tumble weed. Purple sage grows from Santa Maria south. Its crinkly gray foliage is almost white. Purple sage's flowers are a soft violet spiral that look like a landing towers for hummingbirds and native insects. Purple Sage likes a clay or loamy soil. It will grow in sand, but not at its best. Use in the back of a native planting or sage garden and as a contrast plant. Along the coast it is a satisfactory bluff plant.

Salvia leucophylla, Pt. Sal

Pt. Sal is suppose to be a low growing version of purple sage. However in our experience it is a monster. The flowers are purplish-pink and it has gray foliage

Salvia mellifera, Black Sage

Black sage grows along the coastal areas of California from San Diego up to about San Francisco. The fragrance is different from Musk Sage, in that Black Sage screams CHAPARRAL when you brush it. Hummingbirds, small native flies and butterflies like the flowers. Quail and small birds like the seeds. Black Sage is a dominant plant in its range. This sage grows in sand in Los Osos, clay in San Luis Obispo, under redwoods in Santa Cruz, and mixed with junipers in the Temblor mountain range. This is a very long lived, stable sage that looks good most all of the year.

Salvia mellifera repens, Creeping Black Sage

This is a low growing black sage, one of several forms and varieties out there. The varieties that we have seen are all much lower and more spreading than Black Sage and definitely more frost sensitive. They would do well in areas where height is a problem, as in obscuring a view. Black Sage and the other sages of California have been little used in cooking but each one has its own special fragrance and most people burn the wood with oak wood in the barbecue to flavor the meat in that way.

Salvia munzii, San Diego Sage

Munz's Sage grows right at the Mexican border in a real badlands of drought, sun, and wind. This sage will go deciduous in its normal range in late summer, making it probably the most drought tolerant of the garden tolerant sages. In a garden it is a cute little perennial sub-shrub with blue flowers. It looks so delicate in the garden, yet its habitat is awfully hot and dry. Hard chaparral, with about 7 inches of rainfall, temperatures in the low 100's, and INS agents everywhere. If it's a extreme drought, don't water and it should live, losing it's leaves to survive, do water and it will look lush.

Salvia munzii grows on this barren hillside!

Salvia pachyphylla, Mountain Desert Sage

Mountain Desert sage (Salvia pachyphylla), is the queen of California sages. The flowers are elegant, showy on a very clean, smooth plant. Some years the flowers are almost as big as the plant! Fragrance is not as good as Musk Sage, but the flowers are pink and lavender with hints of blue. The foliage on Mountain desert sage is as white as white sage but more neat and the plant more compact with stunning flowers. Mountain desert sage can be grown in most gardens as long as you keep it dry after the first year. Sneak out and water in the summer and this drought loving plant will probably die.

Salvia sonomensis, Creeping Sage

Creeping Sage (Salvia sonomensis) is a trailing groundcover that lives in the more mesic chaparral edges and along the edges of the yellow pine forest. Creeping Sage commonly grows in clay that is very wet in winter, but dry in summer. Occasionally a summer shower will wash the foliage off, but the ground stays dry. If you wish to grow Creeping Sage water it once every 2 weeks for the first year, then one or two waterings extra in spring, along with 2-3 summer dust wash-offs. We discovered Salvia 'Gracias' a few years ago. It is a hybrid between Creeping Sage and Musk Sage. 'Gracias' is much more stable than either species with the form of Creeping, and the flowers of Musk. Beautiful, and much better for most gardens. Gracias is very drought tolerant, Salvia sonomensis is drought tolerant in it's range, everywhere else it's a wimp.

Salvia sonomensis, Farmar-Bower or Golden Creeping Sage

This is a yellow-white flowered version of creeping sage. It dose great in clay soil.

Salvia spathacea, Hummingbird Sage

Hummingbird sage is a groundcover usually found under oaks, but may also grows in sunny areas in chaparral. Under Coast Live Oaks, Quercus agrifolia, Hummingbird Sage can cover areas 100 feet across forming a solid mat of large deep green leaves followed by magenta flowers staked out by resident hummingbirds. Hummingbird Sage has been very effective on coastal bluffs. It can tolerate full sun along the coast, long drought and tolerates full salt spray. Plant it beside a rock and watch it grow! Hummingbird Sage also likes extra spring water and summer wash-offs.

Here are some varieties we have:

Salvia spathacea, Powerline or Pink Giant Hummingbird Sage

Salvia spathacea, Topanga or Los Angeles Hummingbird Sage

Salvia spathacea, Las Pilitas Hummingbird Sage

California Sage hybrids

These sages are hybrids between native species in California. Some are naturally accruing others were developed in gardens. These are some of the most beautiful sages but many are also shorter lived than their parents and not as stable. These are very popular with birds and butterflies. The plants must be similar enough to their wild parents for the wildlife to know what to do with them.

Salvia Celestial Blue

'Celestial Blue' is a hybrid of Salvia clevelandii, Salvia pachyphylla and Salvia leucophylla. It is hardy to 0 degrees F, drought tolerant, heat tolerant and it seems, even garden tolerant. The flowers start appearing in May and hold until the first weeks of July. The foliage smells as Musk Sage but is smooth and not nearly as folded and crinkly as either Salvia clevelandii or S. leucophylla. (Las Pilitas Nursery introduction: 1999). We planted some in an area where everything else has died of drought(we do not cuddle our plants), the plants have done fine and flowered with no water, other than a dust down once. (Felt sorry for the dirt covered plant.)

Salvia Pozo Blue, ' Salvia clevelandii X leucophylla

'Pozo Blue' is a hybrid between Purple Sage and Cleveland Sage. 'Pozo' grows to about 4 feet. high, and 5 feet wide and has the flowers and fragrance of Musk sage but is hardy to 0 F. like Purple Sage. 'Pozo Blue' tolerates and even thrives in sand or clay, coastal, mountain or desert gardens. It also has proven to be VERY drought tolerant. We, that is Las Pilitas Nursery, introduced it in 1989. The original plants are 13 years old with no water. They survive dry hot summers and drought and are still a mass of flowers in July. Where this one is planted most of the 'drought tolerant' plants in the trade would fry in a few hours, (it's very toasty). Cal Trans has used these along some of the 101 roadsides, planted and water in once and it did fine with no further irrigation. Pozo Blue is really showy and forms a nice round shrub. It is especially popular with California Quail, hummingbirds, and lots of butterflies including the California Dog Face.

Salvia Bee's Bliss

Bee's Bliss looks a lot like Salvia Gracias. We can't find much information about the history of this sage. Low growing with blue flowers. Not as explosive as 'Gracias'. Some have said they are the same plant, but Gracias cannot have any water, 'Bee's Bliss' is Ok with some water.

Salvia bernardina X

This strange sage is a hybrid between Salvia mellifera, Black sage and Salvia columbariae, Chia. It can often be seen after fires. It is a shrubby perennial similar in form to Black sage. The flowers are blue and resemble Chia flowers.

Salvia Carl Nielsen

We don't know much about this sage but it has really pretty flowers.

Salvia 'Dara's Choice'

'Dara's Choice' is a hybrid between Salvia mellifera and something else, maybe Salvia sonomensis. It has green foliage and a decent blue flower. The growth rate is exceptional. As a ground cover, Dara's Choice can cover 50 square feet in 4 months. It was created by Dara Emery at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in the 1970's. Not drought tolerant except near the coast.

Salvia 'Gracias' clevelandii X sonomensis

Salvia 'Gracias' has gray-green foliage and pale purple flowers. It is very low growing only about 6 inches to a foot tall. It makes an excellent ground cover. It tolerates dry climates the way a species would. It survived in our demonstration garden on 12 inches of rainfall in full sun with temperatures regularly exceeding 100 degrees F. It is great for covering up retaining walls or stabilizing rock walls. It drapes gracefully down the face of the wall and can tolerate reflected heat off the wall. We have used it in very high deer areas and it has been ignored by them. It attracts lots of butterflies and hummingbirds.

Salvia Mrs. Beard

Mrs. Beard is a low growing sage. It has greener foliage than 'Gracias' and has light blue flowers. We don't know much more about it.

Pitcher sages

These aren't real sages but they are related. They are fragrant and have large flowers.

Lepechinia calycina, California Pitcher sage

California pitcher sage grows about 3 ft tall and about the same wide. Under stress it will go summer deciduous. It can tolerate very hot dry climates and cold winter temperatures. It likes full sun but can tolerate part shade. The flowers are large and light purple. The foliage is very fragrant. This pitcher sage likes well drained soil.

Lepechinia fragrans, Wallaces Pitcher sage

Wallace's pitcher sage is a little bit softer than California pitcher sage as it comes from more coastal climates. It can tolerate temperatures in the teens. It has purplish pink flowers a little darker than California pitcher sage. It likes little part shade in the interior. Although it does better with a little moisture. It made it through our 110 degree F. summer on only 12 inches of rainfall in our demonstration garden. It just went summer deciduous. Wallace's Pitcher sage has fragrant foliage.

Lepechinia ganderi, San Diego Pitcher sage

San Diego pitcher sage looks a lot different from the other to mentioned here. The foliage is more shiny , not so hairy, and darker green with purplish stems and tints of purple in the foliage. The flowers aren't so elongated with smaller less prominent sepals. It the most elegant of the three. It likes rock soils. It is real happy in a rock garden or with a large rock next to it.

Other stinky things that are also called sages but are not.

Artemisia californica, California Sagebrush

California Sagebrush has soft, fragrant, gray foliage. It grows around 3 feet tall. California Sagebrush is happiest along the coast in mild climates. It has feathery foliage.

Artemisia californica, Canyon Grey Trailing Sagebrush

Canyon gray sage brush is a California sagebrush that stays only about a foot tall. It has the same feathery gray foliage and fragrance as the regular California sagebrush. It will tolerate serpentine and clay soils as well as well drained soils.

Artemisia californica X Montara

Artemisia californica X Montara is another low growing Artemisia. It is a naturally occurring hybrid between Artemisia californica and Artemisia pycnocephala. It reaches only about a foot tall. Montara tolerates sea side conditions, clay, and serpentine soil.

Artemisia tridentata, Great Basin Sagebrush

Great Basin Sagebrush has larger leaves but the same gray foliage and fragrance. It is found in large portions of very dry areas in northern and central California. It is a little more substantial than California sage brush. It is about 4 feet tall. Great basin sagebrush likes sandy well drained soil.