Salvia Officinalis - Cultivars

Cultivars

In favourable conditions in the garden, S. officinalis can grow to a substantial size (1 square metre or more), but a number of cultivars are more compact. As such they are valued as small ornamental flowering shrubs, rather than for their herbal properties. Some provide low ground cover, especially in sunny dry environments. Like many herbs they can be killed by a cold wet winter, especially if the soil is not well drained. But they are easily propagated from summer cuttings, and some cultivars are produced from seeds.

Named cultivars include:

• 'Alba', a white-flowered cultivar
• 'Aurea', golden sage
• 'Berggarten', a cultivar with large leaves, which rarely blooms, extending the useful life of the leaves
• 'Extrakta', has leaves with higher oil concentrations
• 'Icterina', a cultivar with yellow-green variegated leaves
• 'Lavandulaefolia', a small leaved cultivar
• 'Purpurascens' ('Purpurea'), a purple-leafed cultivar
• 'Tricolor', a cultivar with white, yellow and green variegated leaves

'Icterina' and 'Purpurascens' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.