Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) is an enthusiastic bloomer and an excellent choice for robust fall color when annuals fade. Despite its name, this mint family (Lamiaceae) species flowers in many seasons.
This article was originally posted on September 24, 2014. It was a good gardening idea and worth seeing again, so we hope you enjoy revisiting it.
However, seasonality is affected by where you live. In its hot, dry, native land of Southwestern Texas and Northern Mexico, Autumn Sage grows as an evergreen that flowers from fall into spring.
In the cooler, moister climate of coastal Northern California, these sages bloom spring, summer and fall.
Where winter climates are chilly, the twiggy branches of cold-tolerant varieties may appear to be dead following frosts, but new growth will rise from a plant's crown. In Colorado, for example, some kinds of Autumn Sage return year after year as subshrubs with part woody and part soft, herbaceous growth that dies back in winter.
Wherever it grows, Autumn Sage almost always blazes with blossoms during fall.
We have 19th century Tennessean Josiah Gregg to thank for introducing Autumn Sage to horticulture. Gregg found a cure for frail health in the dry West, where he collected plants while working as a Spanish interpreter and trail guide for the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War.
Gregg shipped his plants to friends back East. They, in turn, sent his discoveries to Harvard University where botanist Asa Gray named many of the species for Gregg. Now, more than 160 years later, Autumn Sage and its close mint family (Lamiaceae) relatives brighten gardens across the U.S.
Following are two links to articles about the Autumn Sage group. For more information about S. greggii and its relatives, please visit Flowers by the Sea, a friend of All Things Plants.
Salvia greggii: Discovering a Riot of Color
http://www.fbts.com/everything...
Drought-Resistant Beauties: A Guide to the Salvia greggii and S. microphylla Group
http://www.fbts.com/everything...
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