Purple Sage

Cooks and gardeners alike are indebted to this evergreen perennial for the unique, pungent flavor and aroma that its gray-green leaves produce. This cultivar has leaves suffused with steely gray purple. It forms a 1½-foot-tall-and-wide bush with woody stems that may be trimmed back to newly emerging growth or strong stems in spring. In early to midsummer, it sends up lavender-purple flower spikes; it has both ornamental and culinary qualities in an herb garden. It tolerates alkaline soil but cannot survive wet winter conditions.