Plant of the Week
Autumn Sage
Latin: Salvia greggii
 A couple years ago I went through the salvia phase of my life.
I acquired all of the new and interesting salvias then available and planted
them out to see which species would survive here in north Arkansas as a
perennial. One of my favorites of this group was Salvia greggii, the
Autumn Sage.
The Autumn Sage is a subshrub that can grow as much as 30
inches tall and wide with a woody base and slender new herbaceous shoots. In
milder areas it is evergreen but in north Arkansas it loses its leaves in
the winter and often dies back to the thicker wood at the base of the plant.
The leaves are green, oblong in outline and entire with a slight sage smell
when crushed.
The showy, usually red flowers are produced in terminal
racemes held above the foliage during the spring and fall with only
scattered blooms during the heat of summer. The flowers are two-lipped with
the lower lip considerably enlarged and about the size of a dime. The calyx,
while not colored like other salvias, forms an attractive v-shaped collar
for the base of the floral tube.
Breeders have been busy working on the Gregg Salvia and now
have a wide array of colors including various shades of red, pink, white and
yellow. As often seems the case when plant breeders get involved the color
variants seem less thrifty. Only the red and pink forms have been
consistently cold hardy in my plantings.
Salvia greggii is native to Texas, Mexico and parts of
Arizona. It was first collected by Josiah Gregg (1806-1850) in 1846
when he joined a regiment of Arkansas volunteers on their way to Mexico to
fight in the Mexican - American War. One of the soldiers on this march
described Gregg as sitting stiffly upright on his mule with a look of
disdainful interest on his face while holding a red silk parasol to shade
himself from the midday sun.
Gregg was a loner by nature who wandered about the western
frontier and taught himself a number of professions, including surveying,
cartography, teaching, lawyering and even doctoring. He stuck to none of
these professions very long and is remembered today for his venture into
natural history. His plant collections went to Dr. George Engelmann in St.
Louis.
In 1849 Gregg caught gold fever and headed to northwestern
California where he and a small band spend a cold and hungry winter seeking
their fortune. Gregg's interest in natural history put him at odds with the
rest of his party. At one point, as the party ran low on food and
ammunition, Gregg stopped to measure the diameter of some redwoods.
The men were ready to proceed and finally launched their
canoes with the threat to leave Gregg behind in the wilderness. He waded
into the stream and unleashed a string of curses befitting the best sailor,
thus spawning the incident which gave Mad River the name it bears today. A
few days later a traveling companion stated that Gregg fell from his saddle
without a word, dying of starvation.
Autumn sage is best in full sun in a well drained, somewhat sandy site.
Like most dryland plants of the American southwest it resents heavy, wet
soils in the winter. It may freeze back during the winter but usually
regrows from the larger branches at the base of the plant. It has great heat
and drought tolerance but only flowers well during more congenial weather.
To increase the chance of it getting established in the northern part of its
hardiness range, it should be planted in the garden only in early spring. It
seems unbothered by insects or disease.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
June 21, 2002
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