Salvia spathacea
Hummingbird sage is a herbaceous plant species with woody bases and a somewhat sprawling habit with upright flowering stems. Its a member of the large Salvia or sage genus in Lamiaceae, or the mint family. This fruity scented Salvia blooms in March to May with typically dark rose-lilac colored flowers. It is native to southern and central California found growing from sea level to 2,000 feet and is cultivated in gardens for its attractive flowering spikes and pleasant scent. It grows in the California coast ranges from the Sacramento Valley south to coastal Orange county in the the south. A common species that grows on shady slopes in oak woodland, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub. It is commonly found in oak woodlands not far from the Pacific Ocean. It is an evergreen perennial with herbaceous flowering stems from a woody base, growing from 0.3 to 1.5 meters (1-3 feet) tall and spreading by rhizomes. When not flowering, plants grow less than.5 meter (4 to 12 inches) tall forming clumps of sprawling foliage. Unlike most sages, the flowering stems are produced singularly from each plant and only rarely branch. It spreads by rhizomes and can form colonies up to 1.3 meters in diameter. Like many species in the mint family it has very pronounced square stems, and the entire plant is covered with wavy glandular hairs. Its bright green leaves are 8-20 centimeter long, and highly aromatic when crushed or touched. They are oblong to almost arrowhead-shaped at the base, and can be puckered with wrinkles, and have rounded teeth at the leaf edges. Like the rest of the plant, they are covered with hairs which make the plant soft to the touch. The hairs tend to be denser on the bottom surface of the leaves. The dark red flowers are produced in clustered whorled inflorescence 15-30 centimeters long and 6 centimeters in diameter on spike-like stems with each node on the top half of the stem having flowers.
Plant Hummingbird Sage in dry shaded or partly shaded areas. It seems to do best in full shade, under oak trees and other dense foliage. Hummingbird Sage is very drought tolerant, and after the first year, can usually make it through the summer without any supplementary water, though it tends to go semi-deciduous without occasional irrigation. If you want it to be green year round, it’ll tolerate summer water once or twice a month. There are several cultivars including ‘Powerline Pink’, ‘Sunrise’, and ‘Topanga’.