When I'm an old woman, my garden shall wear purple.

Flowers Purple, Andy Warhol
1974

I've been looking around my gardens and noticing how much purple there will be once the perennials grab hold.  I have lavender, cone flowers, violets, salvia, hosta, blueberries, chives and Russian sage. I have some pinks, yellows and whites, but mostly purples. I love how the purples look up here.

Russian Sage in bloom

I wanted to work on a particular area near the entry steps to make it look as though purple was flowing down the small incline like water.  I decided to use Russian sage for the space.  Russian sage, or Perovskia atriplicifolia, is a very hardy perennial that likes full sun and poor soil. It grows to be about three feet tall with silvery stems and small lavender-blue flowers. It blooms towards the end of the summer.


We were talking about Russian sage last night at the Woods and Blooms Garden Club meeting. We were wondering if it was really a sage and how to pronounce Perovskia.  I decided to do a little research.  Turns out it isn't really a sage, nor is it Russian.  The botanist who named the plant was Russian and named the genus after a Russian governor. The plant is actually native to Central Asia. The sage reference may have come from the similarity in smell when the leaves are crushed.

The pronunciation? 

 per-OFF-skee-uh

Future site of
Russian Sage River

I went over to Stoney Creek Home and Garden and took advantage of their 30% off sell to stock up with four Russian sage plants.  I placed them where I wanted and will plant them sometime this weekend.  Soon they will look just like the photo below taken at the Morris Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rounding Morris' Russian Sage photo:Rusty Kennedy

I planted three Perovskia plants last summer.  They came through the winter, but they really didn't begin to rally until mid-July. I'm not sure if they didn't get enough sun or if the soil (cranberry compost mix) wasn't quite ideal.  They are only about 18" tall and are just now beginning to flower.

Russian Sage
planted last year

In reading about caring for Russian sage I learned that leaving the plant alone is probably the best thing to do.  After making sure it gets enough water the first year to establish its roots it needs very little water during a normal summer.  Pruning it back a little in the spring or early summer may encourage growth and make for a fuller plant - I will try that.





I decided to try to propagate a few plants through cuttings.  I took four cuttings, two from the new plants and two from the old, and applied a bit of root stimulator and put them into peat pots with soil.  It is supposed to take two months for the roots to appear and take hold.  I keeping them in the basement on our lighted plant racks.

Four little Pero plants