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Scientific: Salvia leucantha
Common: Mexican sage
Family: Lamiaceae (the mint family)
Origin: Mexico

Pronounciation: SAL-vi-a le-u-CAN-tha

Hardiness zones
Sunset
10-24
USDA 9-11 (cooler zones as a summertime annual)

Landscape Use: Herbaceous border, color accent, xeriscape, rock garden, landscape perennial border, garden wildlife principally hummingbirds and butterflies.

Form & Character: Upright, slowly spreading, soft, colorful, sprawling and rank in appearance if over watered.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, herbaceous to semi-woody perennial shrub, basally clumping from short rhizomes, moderate to vigorous to 3 to 7 feet in height with equal spread.

Foliage/Texture: Opposite, lanceolate ranging from 2- to 6-inches long, slightly serrate, adaxial surface gray green, abaxial surface densely tomentose, whitish in full sun, lacking pubescence in shade, prominent venation; medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Inflorescence a showy tomentose spiked raceme 6- to 10-inches long, calyx deep purple, corolla white; fruit inconspicuous.

Seasonal Color: Purplish flowers mostly in late summer and fall.

Temperature: Heat tolerant of all but western exposures in Phoenix. Cold hardy to 25oF.

Light: Full sun to partial shade from western sun.

Soil: Well-drained best.

Watering: Infrequent to regular summer irrigations. Regular watering greatly increases vigor and size in Phoenix area.

Pruning: Head back hard in winter after flowering, otherwise head back lightly in early summer to encourage a more compact form when blooming.

Propagation: Easy from cutting, may reseed.

Disease and Pests: Root rot if soil is poorly drained.

Additional comments: Mexican sage is a wonderful border accent plant that needs some protection from hot western sun in Phoenix (like most all of us do). Watering can and should be used to control vigor. Pink flowering variants exists.