The division into sage and salvia is very arbitrary, because these are plants of the same genus. Salvia the family is clear. We used to call perennial species sage, and annuals salvia. The genus is very numerous, one of the largest among flowering plants, it includes about 1000 species. He became famous, first of all, thanks to medicinal species, although all representatives of the genus contain useful essential oils.
The healing properties of sage have been known since ancient times, but even today they remain unexplored in detail. A medicinal plant called Salvia first described by Pliny the Elder. Theophrastus called it "elelifascon", Diocorides recommended it as a diuretic and hemostatic agent. The healers of ancient Hellas mainly used clary sage, but the reputation of the most valuable in the whole world was won by medicinal sage.
Having filled pharmaceutical gardens, sage later spread to ornamental gardens.
Perennial salvia, or sage
Salvia officinalis (Salvia officinalis) - originally from the Mediterranean, Central Europe and Asia Minor.
This is a semi-shrub up to 50-60 cm tall, but in central Russia it is more often grown as an annual. Leaves are oblong, small-crowned, petiolate, bluish-green. Stems and leaves are rough due to a continuous short pubescence, especially from below. The flowers are purple, collected in 6-7 false whorls of 10 flowers. Blooms in June-July. All parts of the plant have a pleasant aroma and contain essential oil.
Salvia officinalis often overwinters in the open ground of the middle zone, if planted in a sheltered place, it can exist for 2-3 years, requires constant renewal, usually does not bloom. Its varieties, especially variegated ones, are less winter-hardy:
 |  |
- Purpurascens - variety with purple-violet leaves, the most common;
- Robin Hill - isolated from Purpurascens, has less purple tones in the color of the leaves;
- Tricolor - tricolor, with creamy white edging and purple strokes on a green background in the middle of the leaf;
- Aurea - leaves with an uneven yellowish edging;
- Icterina - variegated foliage, with uneven yellow-green spots, sometimes covering the entire leaf;
- Latifolia - broadleaf form;
- Creme de la Sgeme - variegated variety with uneven white edging of leaves;
- Extrakta - with long lanceolate leaves, has a high content of essential oil;
- Crispa - with fringed along the edge, pointed leaves;
- Curly - a novelty with narrow gray-green leaves corrugated along the edge.
 |  |
Salvia officinalis leaves have a bitter, pungent and spicy taste. They are used in folk and official medicine, primarily as an antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent. They are part of spicy-aromatic herbal mixtures for fish, meat, cheeses used in cooking and food industry.
Oak sage (Salvia nemorosa) distributed in the European part of Russia, Crimea, Central Europe, the Balkans and Asia Minor. Grows in steppes, meadows, forest edges.
Pubescent plant with straight, simple, leafy stems 30-60 cm high. Leaves are oblong or weakly ovate, up to 5 cm long and 3 cm wide, crenate along the edge, usually wrinkled, on petioles equal to or shorter than the leaf blade. Inflorescences are simple or slightly branched, with large decorative bracts (bracts) at the base, including up to 30 false contiguous whorls. Flowers up to 1 cm long, blue-violet, two-lipped. It blooms from late May to late July, after cutting it will bloom again in autumn. Forms self-seeding.
It has many varieties with purple, lilac, pink, white flowers, slightly different in terms of flowering, here are some of them:
- Adrian - small, up to 30 cm, with white flowers;
- Caradonna - up to 60 cm tall, with dark purple flowers and dark purple stems;
 |  |
- Miss Elly - high grade, up to 70 cm with dark axes of inflorescences, on which lilac-pink flowers are located;
- Ostfriesland - up to 50 cm tall, with purple-blue flowers;
 |  |
- Rosenwein - bright variety up to 45 cm, with pink flowers and red cups and inflorescence axes;
- Serenade - up to 70 cm, with lilac flowers on purple axes;
- Sensation Rose - compact variety 25-30 cm tall, with bright pink flowers.
 |  |
Forest sage(Salvia x sylvestris) - "daughter" of oak sage, hybrid of oak and meadow sage (Salvia nemorosa x S. pratensis)... It is very similar in structure to her. Plants are the same bushy, 45-150 cm tall in different varieties, leaves up to 8 cm long. The inflorescences inherited the colors of both species - purple, blue, lavender-blue, pink. There are several varieties, among them:
- Blue Mount - compact, up to 60 cm, with flowers of intense violet-blue color;
- Blue Queen - 60 cm, with purple flowers;
- Lye End - up to 1.5 m tall, with lavender-blue, wide-open flowers;
- Mainach - very popular low, up to 45 cm, variety with violet-blue inflorescences;
- Rose queen - up to 75 cm tall, with pink flowers and purple calyxes.
Lush sage (Salvia x superba) - "granddaughter" of oak sage, is a natural hybrid Salvia x sylvestris and S. amplexicaulis.
Up to 60 cm in height, with branched stems, it resembles oak sage, but it has more rare, but with larger flowers, numerous tall spike-shaped inflorescences. More thermophilic than oak sage, in central Russia it needs a warmed up protected place. Blooms in June-July.
Among the varieties there are blue, pink, white colors, for example:
 |  |
- Blauhugel syn. Blue hill - 50-60 cm tall, with blue flowers, blooms longer;
- White hill - with white flowers;
- Merleau blue - 25-40 cm tall, with bright blue flowers.
It should be noted that varieties of forest sage and lush sage are often presented as varieties of oak sage. According to the conditions of cultivation, they do not differ.
Meadow sage (Salvia pratensis) found in the European part of Russia, the Baltic States, Scandinavia, Central and Western Europe, the Western Mediterranean in dry meadows, glades, along the edges and along the roads.
Stems are simple, leafy, 30-60 cm tall, sometimes up to 90 cm. In the first year of life, forms only a rosette of leaves. Leaves up to 15 cm long, oblong or cordate, obtuse, double finely toothed or crenate along the edge, almost not pubescent, wrinkled, on short petioles, upper ones sessile, lanceolate. Inflorescences are simple or slightly branched, up to 45 cm long, including up to 10 rare false whorls of 4-6 flowers. The flowers are 3 cm long, purple-blue, although there are forms with white and pink flowers. Blooms in June.
 |  |
- Pink delight - variety 75 cm high, with dense whorls of bright pink flowers, blooms from July;
- Madeline - the variety is up to 40 cm tall, the inflorescences are high, the flowers are two-colored - the upper lip is blue, the lower one has a white limb, early flowering;
- Indigo - up to 70 cm, wide, with dense whorls of dark blue flowers on the dark axis of the inflorescence;
- Swan lake - 45-75 cm in height, with white inflorescences;
- Haematodes Group - up to 90 cm, with lilac-blue flowers with pink cups.
- Lapis lazuli - new, 45-90 cm tall, with tall inflorescences of lavender pink flowers.
Meadow sage is a juvenile, requiring renewal every 2-3 years. In plants grown from seeds, inflorescences usually differ in shades. The varieties are bred mainly in the UK, they are less winter hardy than the main species (up to -28 degrees).
Clary sage (Salvia sclarea) - a thermophilic plant of the Black Sea coast, the Caucasus, the mountains of Central Asia, the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. The specific name of the plant comes from Latin clarus - pure, indicates light colors of flowers. It is also called the Vatican sage.
 |  |
Biennial 1-1.5 m tall with large, up to 25 cm, broadly ovate, wrinkled grayish-green leaves. Inflorescences are formed in the second year of life - high, branched at the base, which is why they have a pyramidal shape. In whorls of 2-6 small, up to 2.5-3 cm, flowers of white-pink-lilac range. But the decorativeness of inflorescences, in the main, is not given by flowers, but rather large, pink or white, with greenish edging, bracts.
The name of the plant speaks for itself - its leaves have a strong aroma and pleasant taste, are used to flavor beer and wines along with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), as well as for the falsification of muscat wines. From this plant, an essential "nutmeg oil" with the aroma of amber is obtained, which is in demand in the perfumery and cosmetic industry.
Grows well in open areas with drained soils. Propagated by sowing in open ground, often self-sowing and bloom in the first year. The winter hardiness of the plant is up to -28 degrees, so it does not always hibernate in the middle lane. However, there is a natural form Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica, with a higher winter hardiness, compactness, white flowers with large bracts. In turn, its shape Alba has white bracts, completely devoid of pink tints.
Cm. Growing clary sage in the middle lane.
Whorled sage (Salvia verticillata) - a plant of the European part of Russia and Western Europe, the Caucasus, Western Siberia, Asia Minor. Prefers clay and calcareous soils.
Semi-shrub up to 50 cm tall, stems slightly lodging and ascending, branched, densely pubescent. The leaves are ovate-triangular or heart-shaped, sharp, crenate along the edge, the lower ones on long petioles. Inflorescences are high, more than 25 cm, often branched. Flowers in it are arranged in whorls, in which there can be up to 40 pieces. Corolla narrow, lilac-blue, more than 1 cm long. Blooms from early July to mid September.
- Purple Rain - a variety with deep purple flowers, often found on sale in pots.
A melliferous and aromatic plant, the leaves have a mild refreshing aroma that goes well with cheeses and meats.
Silver sage (Salvia argentea) - Mediterranean plant.
A short-lived perennial up to 70 cm tall, grown from seeds as a biennial. In the first year, it forms a spectacular spread-out rosette of large, up to 15 cm, broadly oval, folded, along the edge of crenate leaves, densely pubescent with soft white hairs. In spring, the leaves are silvery-white, in summer they are silvery-gray, by autumn they become silvery-green. It blooms in June-July (in the 2nd year of life) with white flowers up to 3 cm long, covered with paired grayish-white bracts, collected in rather tall inflorescences of 4-10 whorls. But it is mainly grown for the beautiful fluffy rosettes of leaves, for the sake of which the flower-bearing stems are cut, if they do not seek to obtain seeds.
Bette Chateau, a famous English landscape designer, wrote about this plant: "Incredibly, young leaves covered with white felt, especially on the bottom, can be used as a puff for powder."
- Antemis - low grade, up to 30 cm high, with large woolly leaves up to 20 cm long and 15 cm wide.
The plant is not widespread in our country, it is mainly grown by collectors. Winter-hardy up to -28 degrees, in the middle lane it does not always survive the winter, for successful wintering it needs a dry, drained, protected place.
It is grown from seeds, although sometimes it is possible to root lateral rosettes from plants of the second year of life.
Reproduction
Sage seeds can be sown on seedlings from late February to early May, or directly into open ground in early May. Seeds of medicinal sage, clary sage are germinated in the light, not embedded in the soil, because they are light sensitive. Before sowing, oak and whorled sage seeds are subjected to 3-month cold stratification at 0 ... + 5оС. Oak sage is germinated in the light, and whorled sage - in the dark. The optimum temperature is + 20 ... + 25 ° C. Seedlings are kept in cool conditions, at a temperature not higher than + 15 ° C.
Sage can also be sown outdoors in April-May. They often spread by self-seeding.
Propagated also vegetatively - by dividing the bush and apical cuttings. For varieties, this is the only method of reproduction, since the seed method does not ensure the preservation of valuable varietal traits. It is best to divide in early spring, at the beginning of plant regrowth, every 2-3 years to rejuvenate and not lose short-lived plants.
The cuttings are rooted in the greenhouse in early summer. Cutting sage is a complex process, cuttings do not tolerate drying, as well as waterlogging, in which they often rot. Rooted young plants in the first winter are mulched and covered, providing wintering in dry conditions.
Continuation - in the articles:
Annual salvia
Sage: a little about new products and exotics
Sage in landscape design
