Salvia clevelandii ‘Winnifred Gilman’ – Winifred Gilman fragrant sage. A selection that grows to 3 to 4 feet tall and wide with aromatic gray-green foliage and profuse golf ball-shaped clusters of electric blue-purple flowers. The flowers arise from dark ruby red calyces that form in whorls along the top foot of each reddish stem tip. The whole plant is sweetly aromatic. Salvia clevelandii ‘Winnifred Gilman’ was originally released without collection data at a Strybing Arboretum (now the San Francisco Botanic Garden) plant sale in 1964, named for one of their volunteer propagators. It was later noted growing in a Berkeley, CA garden by Sherrie Althouse and Phil Van Soelen of California Flora Nursery and was introduced into the California nursery trade by them in 1990.

Salvia x ‘Bon-Bon’ – Bon-Bon hybrid sage This compact sage hybrid —a cross between Salvia clevelandii ‘Aromas’ and Salvia leucophylla ‘Point Sal’ (Which makes it 2/3rds leucophylla and 1/3rd clevelandii) —was introduced by Bob Sussman of Matilija Nursery in Moorpark, CA. Evergreen plants reach only 2 ½’ high and wide with fragrant foliage and clusters of blue spring/summer flowers. Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and songbirds will all visit! Full sun; drought tolerant to occasional irrigation; prefers fast-draining soil; provides erosion control; good choice for containers or mixed beds. Most likely hardy to 15°F.

Salvia clevelandii x leucophylla  ‘Kaleidoscope’ – Kaleidoscope sage. This striking new introduction features rosy-purple flowers in whorls atop dense, grey foliage. ‘Kaleidoscope’ is a nice and compact sage, only reaching 2 – 3 ft. high and slowly spreading to form a small drift about 4 ft. wide. It is proving to be quite a garden tolerant Salvia and resistant to disease.  Enjoys full sun and occasional to no irrigation once established. Needs decent drainage. An excellent plant for bees and butterflies. This selection was discovered by Terry Loveton in her west Sonoma County Garden. Deer resistant.

Salvia leucophylla ‘Amethyst Bluff’ – Amethyst Bluff purple sage. Amethyst Bluff, which can grow up to 10 feet tall and 15 feet wide, is the largest clone of this species in cultivation. In most gardens it can be counted on reaching 6 feet tall and wide. This most purple of purple sage selections has dark pinkish-purple flowers that bloom in spring.  Amethyst Bluff was collected in the wild, close to the ocean at Point Sal near Santa Barbara. Selected by Carol Bornstein for its vivid rosy-pink flowers, this willing grower starts out as a low mounding shrub, eventually getting very large, reaching 5 ft. or more, tall by 10 ft. or more, wide.  It has a wider gardening range than the species, being cold hardy to at least 15 degrees F, it is worth trying in some Zone 7 areas. All this tough & hardy sage requires is well drained soil and full sun.  The fragrant silvery foliage is a lovely foil for the large flower heads on 12-inch stalks. Perfect choice for sunny banks where it can sprawl freely and is excellent for erosion control. Drought tolerant, particularly along the coast, but appreciates an occasional summer watering. Well drained soil and full sun.

Salvia leucophylla ‘Point Sal’ – Point Sal purple sage

From the same collection location as Amethyst bluff about 1987 by David Fross. Named and introduced by Native Sons nursery in 1990. Original mother plant was 4’ tall with a graceful 8’ spread in the wild. In garden conditions plants have grown considerably larger but still maintain a mounding form.Light Rose-pink flowers are produced in spring on an 8″ inflorescence. Plants are deciduous (drought avoiding) in dry situations. Winter or spring leaves open apple green becoming gray, then white as the season progresses. Full sun or light shade with well-drained soils. A tough and durable selection well-suited to the dry garden. Limbs sometimes root where they touch the ground producing a thicket. Not to be confused with ‘Pt. Sal Spreader’ which is a lower growing selection. Hardy to 10F.

Salvia mellifera ‘Terra Seca’ – Prostrate Black sage

‘Terra Seca’ is an evergreen shrub to 2’ tall with a spread, up to 6 feet. Dark green, aromatic leaves are held tightly along the stems creating a dense mat of foliage. Small white flowers appear in spring. Wayne Roderick named this selection in the late 1970’s and it was introduced by the Saratoga Horticultural Foundation. It may be an old Louis Edmunds selection dating from the 1950’s and is likely the same plant that was collected by James B. Roof from near the Big Sur Lighthouse in Monterey County. Exceptionally drought tolerant along the coast and may need some supplemental water inland to look best.

Salvia mellifera x sonomensis ‘Dara’s Choice’ – Dara’s choice hybrid sage

According to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden (SBBG), Dara’s Choice originated as an open-pollinated selection that horticulturist Dara Emery developed from the seed of an SBBG plant, which the botanic garden notes was labeled Salvia sonomensis. Emery collected the seed from a plant that SBBG obtained from the University of California, Davis. UCD got its plant — probably a Salvia mellifera hybrid — from Pine Hill in El Dorado County. (But Salvia mellifera does not occur in El Dorado County).  Very compact, evergreen subshrub 1.5 ft. tall by 4-6 ft. wide whose stems may root. The leaves are medium green above, whitish green beneath, 3.25-4.25 inches long, oblanceolate and aromatic. The blue-purple flowers are held in short spikes in spring. Pamper it a bit, and this tough sage will grow up to 3 feet tall. Its fragrance wins it a spot in many gardens. Grow in full sun on coast and light afternoon shade inland.

Salvia munzii- San Miguel Mountain sage is a shrub that grows from three to eight-foot-tall and a little wider, that occurs down near the border with Mexico, in dry and hot conditions. This native to San Diego is similar to Salvia mellifera but young stems are slenderer, the flowers are always blue, and it tolerates summer water significantly better. This sage survives extreme drought by going deciduous, but in a normal garden will stay evergreen. Petite dark green leaves and pretty blue flowers. Looks dainty but is as tough as nails. Good on slopes. Probably the best native sage for containers. Mix with a few monkey flowers and Catalina’ California fuchsia to make a showstopper.

Salvia pachyphylla – Santa Rosa Mountain sage, Rose sage, Mountain Desert sage. From the eastern slopes of Southern California mountain ranges, this is plant lovers sage that takes some deliberate placement in a Central Coast garden.2-3’ high by 2-3’ wide with beautiful large inflorescences of lavender-purple calyces and long, hummingbird-pollinated blue flowers in late Summer. Needs perfect drainage and lots of sun to flower and thrive. Completely worth the effort.

Salvia pachyphylla x clevelandii  ‘Celestial blue’. 3′ – 4′ high by 3′ – 4′ wide with deep blue flowers and purple and pink calyces. This one has a less than clear history. First sold by Las Pilitas nursery as Salvia pachyphylla in the mid-nineties. Bert said he took cuttings from a plant in the parking lot at the Theodore Payne Foundation in LA. I ordered a few after seeing pachyphylla in the wild in the Santa Rosa mountains near Palm desert. The plants I received had pachyphylla foliage, but were sweetly scented with blue flowers and purple pink calyces in Saturn ring-like whorls up and down woody stems. Munz reported in his Flora that Cleveland sage and Rose sage (S. pachyphylla) were known to hybridize, and I suggested that was the case with this plant and it could be named ‘Saturn’ or ‘Saturn’s rings’. A year later they introduced it as ‘Celestial Blue’ with a double entendre nod to the Solar system and Bert’s wife Celeste and a description that now included the possibility that the original pachyphylla (?) cuttings from Theodore Payne had crossed in the Las Pilitas nursery site with their hybrid ‘Pozo Blue’ sage and volunteered seedlings there. In any case it is a fantastic, heat loving, rainy winter hating sage for hot dry slopes and full sun gardens that is electric with color in the twilight hours.

Salvia sonomensis – Creeping sage is a low-growing, mat forming perennial plant that is endemic to California. It stays flat along the ground, rooting at contact points, and sends flower spikes up to 12’ high along the length of the branches. The species is highly variable in leaf shape and size and in flower color. Leaves can be long and narrow, or shorter and rounded, with leaf color also showing a wide range from yellow-green to gray-green. Flowers can be pale lavender, lavender-purple, or lavender-blue. S. sonomensis is found in three distinct areas in California: the California Coastal Range from Siskiyou to Napa county; from Monterey county to San Diego county; and in the Sierra Nevada foothills. It is always found growing under 2,000 m (6,600 ft) elevation on dry hillsides and woodlands. This is an excellent understory plant for large manzanita selections.

Salvia sonomensis is easy to grow in cultivation, except in heavy clay soils and where there is too much irrigation.

Salvia spathacea – Hummingbird Sage or Crimson Pitcher sage- A low growing semi-evergreen herbaceous perennial sage with a groundcover mounding habit 1 to 2-foot-tall and spreading slowly by underground rhizomes to about 6 feet in time. The plant is slightly sticky to the touch with pleasingly aromatic arrow-shaped light green leaves that can grow to 6 inches long and are wrinkled on top and hairy beneath. The deep rose-pink flowers grow in large pagoda-like whorls on 30-inch-tall flower stalks from late winter into summer. Plant in full sun to partial shade and give little to occasional irrigation but tolerates even more regular watering. This is an extremely tough plant that can go dormant in summer but can be kept evergreen with occasional irrigation. It is quite useful in dry shade such as under a coast live oak.

Salvia spathacea ‘Avis Keedy’

A rhizomatous, herbaceous groundcover with 3-8-inch-long, wavy leaves and 1-3-foot-tall flower stalks that bloom in late winter or spring. Collected in a moist shady spot near lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County, grown for a while in a backyard garden in Goleta and then shared with the UCSB and Santa Barbara Botanic Garden by garden volunteer Avis Keedy. This selection that the garden named after her is distinguished by its lemon-yellow flowers with lime green bracts as opposed to the typical, magenta-flowered forms of hummingbird sage. This may be the sweetest scent of all native sages; the entire plant has a wonderful, fruity fragrance. Flowers fade to a creamy white/apricot as they mature.