librarian2003 (librarian2003) wrote in weagardening, @ 2008-06-22 09:26:00 |
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Current mood: | productive |
Week 9 - Plant of the Week - Salvia officinalis
Our shrub of the week for week 9 is Salvia officinalis, the Common Sage, which has a lot more to offer in the flower border than might be expected.
Here's the handout:
GARDENING FOR PLEASURE
Plant of the week : Salvia officinalis Common Sage
Family : Lamiaceae
Common sage is a small evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, greyish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is native to the Mediterranean and North Africa. Its natural habitat is dry banks and stony places, usually in limestone areas and often where there is very little soil.
Sage was an old healing plant, sacred to the Romans, and it remains an important culinary herb with a distinctive taste. But it is also a decorative evergreen shrub that deserves a place in flower borders, especially the slightly less hardy variegated forms. All kinds should be clipped annually to preserve their neat shape and encourage plenty of young foliage, which has the best flavour and colour. Older plants eventually become woody and are best replaced after about 4 years, but are easily propagated from cuttings or by layering the naturally arching branches.
It is fully hardy, and grows to a height of 32 inches, with a spread of 36 inches. It prefers light or medium well-drained soil in full sun. It does poorly in continual shade. It is very drought tolerant, once established, and does well in a container. It is in flower from June to August, and the seeds ripen from August to September. The flowers are pollinated by bees. Sage can be killed by excessive winter wet.
Propagate by seed sown in March/April in a greenhouse. Germination usually takes place within 2 weeks. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and plant them out in early summer. In areas where the plant is towards the limits of its hardiness, it is best to grow the plants on in a greenhouse for their first winter and plant them out in late spring of the following year. Cuttings of heeled shoots, taken off the stem in May and planted out directly into the garden are said to grow away well. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, with a heel, in June to August are easy in a frame. Cuttings of mature wood are taken with a heel in November or December in a cold frame. Layer in spring or autumn - mound soil up into the plants, the branches will root into this soil and they can be removed and planted out 6 - 12 months later.
It is also much cultivated as a kitchen and medicinal herb. Common sage is also grown in parts of Europe, especially the Balkans for distillation of the essential oil. The strongly aromatic leaves are used as a flavouring in cooked foods. They are an aid to digestion and so are often used with heavy, oily foods. The young leaves and flowers can be eaten raw, boiled, pickled or used in sandwiches. The flowers can also be sprinkled on salads to add colour and fragrance. A herb tea is made from the fresh or dried leaves.
In Western cooking, it is used for flavouring fatty meats (especially as a marinade), cheeses (Sage Derby), and some drinks. In Britain and Flanders, sage is used with onion for poultry or pork stuffing and also in sauces. In French cuisine, sage is used for cooking white meat and in vegetable soups. Germans often use it in sausage dishes, and sage forms the dominant flavouring in the English Lincolnshire sausage. Sage is also common in Italian cooking. In the Balkans and the Middle East, it is used when roasting mutton.
The Latin name for sage, salvia, is from salvare, meaning “to heal". Although the effectiveness of Common Sage is open to debate, it has been recommended at one time or another for virtually every ailment. Modern evidence supports its effects as an antihydrotic, antibiotic, antifungal, astringent, antispasmodic, estrogenic, hypoglycemic, and tonic. It is taken internally for indigestion, gas, liver complaints, excessive lactation, excessive perspiration, excessive salivation, anxiety, depression, female sterility, and menopausal problems. Externally, it is used for insect bites, throat, mouth, gum, skin infections, and vaginal discharge.
The growing or dried plant is said to repel insects, especially useful when grown amongst cabbages and carrots. It is inhibited by wormwood growing nearby and dislikes growing with basil, rue or the cucumber and squash family. It was formerly used as a strewing herb and has been burnt in rooms to fumigate them.
A number of cultivars of the plant exist. Some have different flavours, such as ‘Blackcurrant’ and ‘Tangerine’ but the majority of these are grown more often for ornament than for their herbal properties. All are valuable as small ornamental flowering shrubs, and for low ground cover, especially in sunny dry situations. They are easily raised from summer cuttings.
‘Albiflora’, white flowered
‘Aurea’, more compact, with yellow leaves; 12” x 18”
‘Purpurascens’ AGM, purple-leafed, considered to be strongest of the garden sages
‘Tricolor’, grey-green leaves zoned cream and pink to purple, and least hardy.
‘Berggarten’, larger leaves,
‘Icterina’ AGM, yellow and green variegated leaves,
‘Kew Gold’, golden leaves, sometimes flecked green, and mauve flowers; 8” x 12”
‘Purpurascens variegata’, purple, variegated silver
Quotations:
“ Why should a man die whilst sage grows in his garden, if not because nothing can stand against death? ”
—attributed to Hildegard of Bingen
“ Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. ”
—Henry David Thoreau in the conclusion to Walden
Jo Hanslip
June 2008
And here are the images, of a surprising number of varieties, at Photobucket, as ever. I'm afraid it won't accept the three we had difficulty with, 'Jade Ice', 'Rosea' and the S.interrupta hybrid. I'll try to find alternates.
Salvia officinalis
Jo