My Sage is dying

[Mark Anderson]

I don't know what exactly kind of sage this is but the seed package I planted last year just said it was sage. So I overwinter this plant inside under lights and it did OK and made it through green and growing all winter. In early June, while in a container outside, the sage decides to flower which was nice and I let it. Now the flowers are making seeds and it looks like the entire plant is about to die as if the plant decided it has done its duty and isn't needed anymore.

Is this normal? I don't think I timed the lights properly in the winter which caused all kinds of problems with seeds I tried to start. I also overwintered a bunch of pineapple sage in the same environment and those are doing well and last year they didn't bloom until November here in Zone 5 Chicago. I'm wondering if perhaps I shouldn't have let it flower.

[Cereus-validus]

Who can say what is normal for a plant if you don't know what it is?

Flowers would have very helpful in identifying it.

[Mark Anderson]

Here's a pic when it started flowering.

then it grew three more flower stalks and has flowered for a month. now the leaves are all yellowed and it doesn't look good. I bought these seeds at the Chicago Botanical Gardens and the packet just said Sage.

[Blues Ma]

Just 30 miles sw of you..................i clip mine continually and never let it flower. I do this because my grandmother and mother never let theirs flower. Also have just covered them and let them take their chance in a cold frame over the winters. Sometimes they do better than the two i bring in for winter use.      

[SugarChile]

It looks like it might be clary sage, which is a biennial. If so, you are correct in your observation that it has accomplished its mission in flowering and is ready to die off.

AFAIK, there is no harm in letting culinary sage flower. The bees love it, and it doesn't seem to set back the plant in any significant way. There are also a lot of annual sages, grown strictly for the flowers, which keep on coming all summer until heavy frost kills the plants.

Cheers, Sue

[Curly Sue]

My culinary sage is in the ground and is growing like a forest; I don't know what I'm doing right. We're in zone 6 and it's 3 years old. I let it flower every spring, this year I got lots of huge purple flowers so I cut them for a bouquet. If I cut a stem back, woody or otherwise, it starts sprouting leaves.

It survived last winter's severe freezes (my rosemary didn't). It is very overgrown and I have been cutting it back bit by bit to get it back to a smaller form, but I feel somewhat out of control :>

You might try cutting one stem to about 3 inches and see if that will stimulate new growth.

Sue(tm) Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

[gregpresley]

Ordinary garden sage is hardy to zone 5. However, some people claim that it is longer-lived if it is thoroughly dead-headed after flowering. To do this, I just take a lopper and cut the entire plant back to about a foot tall. It quickly sprouts new leaves, but doesn't bloom again.

[Frogleg]

I think you're correct. A picture (Mark posted

) Is certainly helpful.

I was about to go on and on about Salvia officinalis, which his plant clearly isn't.

[Doug Kanter]

....which raises the question of which plant he really wanted. Primarily for culinary use, or "other"?

[Mark Anderson]

I grow parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme as well as chives, garlic, catnip, lovage, borage, lavender, oregeno, and several variety of mints and basil. I don't cook and give anything that's edible away to those who do. I like growing herbs for their foliage so I didn't want that plant to flower so early in the year and peter out. It didn't even have a chance to get big.

I have since deadheaded it and it looks like it's getting new leaves now.

I find what to deadhead and what not to deadhead to be the most confusing part of gardening.

[Z28468]

Mark,

Your plant looks extremely similar and sounds a lot like the Salvia Argentea I have in my yard in Valparaiso. The flowers look like a cat's claw and feel sticky to the touch. If allowed to flower, the stalks get too tall and top heavy and fall over other plants nearby. It also causes the foliage to fade from its bright wooly silver to a yellowish green. After the first year, I now cut the flower shoots off and the foliage looks much better. You'll only have to deal with insects eating holes in the the leaves now. If you search for Salvia Argentea, you'll see cutting the flowers is the agreed upon method by most as the foliage is the attraction here.

Mike