Salvia dorrii, Dorr's sage, Mint sage, Purple sage, Desert Purple Sage flowers.
Two Painted Lady Butterflies and one Sphinx moth on Salvia dorrii, Desert Sage
What a pleasant surprise to find amongst the Joshua trees., Salvia dorrii with Yucca brevifolia in the Mojave desert
Salvia dorrii, purple desert sage with a sea of butterflies. To bad the Joshua Trees will not support a hammock.
Four Painted Lady butterflies on Salvia dorrii, Desert Sage
Salvia dorrii, Desert sage, with Yucca brevifolia along the edge of the Mojave desert.
Three Painted Lady Butterflies and one Sphinx moth on Salvia dorrii, Desert Sage
Salvia Dorrii, Purple Desert sage in the interface between Joshua tree and Pinyon Juniper woodland
Salvia dorrii, Desert sage or Purple Sage flowers.
Purple Desert sage commonly grows along the edges of the desert. Big Berry Manzanita, Happlopappus linearis, Single Leaf Pinyon, Stipa speciosa
Description
Salvia
dorrii, Desert Sage, Purple Sage, or Desert Purple Sage
is a beautiful shrub, sub-shrub that grows to 2-3ft. with
gray foliage and deep, deep blue flowers and purple bracts.
Desert Sage needs perfect drainage (native on sand, volcanic rock to
decomposed granite) and no water after established. Desert Sage is the
sage of riders of the purple sage and is native to much of the western
deserts. I have seen them in the wild above Bishop in a rainfall area
of about 10 inches that got to -10 in December 1990, but it also occurs
further south in more reasonable spots overlooking the desert. Common
associated plants are Yucca
brevifolia, Stanleya species, Juniper species, Haplopappus linearifolius,
Cotton Thorn (Tetradymia spp.),
Atriplex canescens, Pinus monophylla,
Artemisia tridentata and Eriogonum
polifolium.
A beautiful plant that works well in most desert gardens, and
pseudo-desert gardens. Purple Sage is also a butterfly magnet.
Do not stick on drip irrigation in adobe and expect it to live.
In most of coastal California these sage needs to be on a little
mound of sand or gravel to be happy unless you are lucky enough to have
a gravel soil. So if you're setting up a desert garden in Malibu, put
down about a foot (or two) of plaster sand or good fill sand over the
largest area you can, away from any oaks, pines or other trees and call
it a 'desert', (Some extra gravel and perlite with a few boulders
wouldn't hurt.). Purple desert sage mixed with the desert mallows, a
Creosote and a few boulders and you have a show stopping 'desert'.
