Salvia chamaedryoides – Mexican Blue sage

A new addition to our herb selection is salvia chamaedryoides or in a language people actually speak, Mexican Blue Sage.

It has much smaller silvery leaves than sage commune, with a smattering of blue flowers all season; but an intense flowing in early Summer and again in Autumn. It grows to a height of 60cms and forms a nice tight bush if properly trimmed after the two flowing season, left a lone it gets quite stringy; so it is worth trimming out the long flowered stems to encourage new growth. Very importantly for us the bees seem to love it. sages once they are established rarely need watering, although a long drought will stress them. All sages appreciate a good trimming after flowering.

It is a perfect dry garden plant as it resists well long periods of dry heat, it’s origins is the western parts of the Sierra Madre in Mexico.

Looks like it will respond well to tip cutting for propagation.

Our garden is full of sages as they really work well in our climate, we have a whole host of decorative flowering sages, as well as Sage officinale for cooking, and for Winter flowers we have a six or seven Salvia Elegans, pineapple sages. The  pineapple sages however do need watering at the height of Summer

Best planted in Spring or Autumn, if planted in spring it is best to water around it once a week until it has established a good root ball. Salvia chamaedryoides does not really require any feeding.

One little word about sages, there is a local expression “Si vous avez une sauge dans le jardin, vous n’aurez pas besoin d’un médecin”. If you have a sage in the garden you will not need a Doctor. Sage is a powerful diuretic, it is good for flushed out your kidneys and liver, but it should be taken, used in small quantities, two or three leaves only. Never for pregnant women.