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Sunday 7 September 2008

Purple Sage .. my workhorse !

I have to say my list of plants that I am fanatical about seems to be getting larger every year. There are some ever true ones that have been with me from almost the beginning though. An all purpose work horse I could not do without. Sages .. I tend to favor purple sage more so but golden sage is a beauty too.


The colours here aren't as vibrant as they should be. Golden Sage is to the right with Baby Swan Echinacea.
Purple is to the left making nice with Autumn Joy sedum .. they work very well together ! It is also by one of my new climbing roses and I'm hoping for the same affect it has by my clematis .. bad bug repellent ! .. I'm not saying this will work in every situation but I have found planting sages by flowering plant that have bug problems helps !

Here in my sad area .. meaning where I transplanted my Nanho Blue butterfly bush (yes .. it is still alive and I am taking good care of it, even as I wince at its state) .. the purple sage to the right was just transplanted from an almost cemented pot from the deck .. if you could have seen what I had to do to get it out .. well .. talk about grunt work .. but that is how tough they are ! they put up with almost anything and yet protect the young and innocent plants next to them. They are my heros !!

12 comments:

Pat said...

Love sedum and all the different sages.
Here's a question...
What do "garden bloggers" blog about in the winter?


Thanks,

Patsi

Darlene said...

Your purple sage is just beautiful...LOVE it!

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Patsi (I called you PS .. on your blog ... LOL)
I'm such a fan of certain plants .. I tend to sound like a plant pusher at times ? haha
Winter is for dreaming and scheming for a bigger better garden to come ? : )

Anonymous said...

That was a great question Patsi asked. This will be my first winter blogging so I never even thought about it. :) I love the Purple Sage, anything that is a workhorse in the garden deserves respect from the gardener.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Darlene ! hellllooooo over there !Hope things are good with you girl : ) thanks for stopping by !

pgl .. Yup .. you would be surprised about what you can blog about in the winter .. I love asking questions .. bouncing ideas off other gardeners .. taking some unusual snow pictures .. and some general nonsense to pass the time ? LOL
There are certain plants like sage that just stick in your mind to use just about anywhere because it is so good a plant ..
My aim was to have as much a potager style garden as possible , so that helps add to it : )

Anonymous said...

Well, it looks like the butterfly bush has some green buds on it. Purple sage, I didn't get that this year. But looking at yours, I realize I should have. Every time I see something in your beautiful gardens, I say to myself: why didn't you get that?
Brenda

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

Joy, I keep killing purple and variagated sage. I am getting ready to buy my fourth plant. I like it so much I just keep killing it.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Debbie ... you have me so curious as to what is happening that could kill this fabulous easy plant ???
Where are you putting it .. full sun is fine of course .. too much shde ? it likes lean soil so nothing fussy there .. you have me really wanting to cure this situation for you girl !

Brenda .. thank you ! .. I'm hopefull the transplant of the butterfly bush is going to be alright .. I really needed to move it .. fingers crossed. Purple sage is even gorgeous in pots with other plants or on its own .. You have to get some girl .. I know you will love it !!

Anonymous said...

Joy, your purple sage and combinations are just gorgeous. You take such beautiful care of your plants!!! And I love that you grow 'Autumn Joy'---of course!

CanadianGardenJoy said...

'ben" ... how could I have a garden and not have ME in there some where ? LOL .. some plants look much better than other plants .. and my freaky neat nature is taking a beating as the garden matures .. it can get out of hand in a split second ! haha

Anonymous said...

I too have a beautiful purple sage... I was trying to figure out HOW to split it so I could have some of its purply goodness in other parts of my garden. I took one look under it and realized it doesn't really spread it's roots, just the leaves... so maybe you an clue me in on the best way to propogate this plant.
Maggie m langley @ acgi.com

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hi Maggie ... you are right it doesn't have a massive root system .. so what I do is make sure I have good individual "clumps" from the main plant and get it in the ground with good watering (I usually use bonemeal with transplants and planting in general.. although I broke that rule with the last scurry I did) .. I'll drop a note for you ? It is really easy to propagate ..