Autumn Sage Spacing

Identification

• Autumn sage, also called cherry sage, cherry salvia and autumn salvia, is grown for its bright blossoms ranging in hue from red, fuschia, purple and burgundy to lighter colors such as yellow, orange and salmon. Sometimes its green leaves are variegated with white. Hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7b through 11, autumn sage is semievergreen, meaning it keeps its leaves in warmer climates and loses them in cooler ones. Cultivars such as “Wild Thing,” with bright pink flowers, are winter hardy in cooler areas, growing in USDA zones 6 through 9.

Plant Spacing

• Autumn sage plants grow to between 1 and 3 feet tall with an equal spread, giving them a rounded, mounding form. If you want to grow the plants as a border or an edging, plant them 18 to 24 inches apart. They will eventually fill in to produce an unbroken wall of color. In zones 8 and above, even freezes usually won’t kill autumn sage, so you can safely treat it as a perennial in the garden. In zones 7 and below, however, you should grow it as an annual and space plants more closely as they will not have as much time to fill out their planting bed.

Pruning Autumn Sage

• In perennial areas, autumn sage benefits from pruning to keep it looking tidy. If you are growing it as a less formal groundcover or mass planting, pruning won’t be necessary unless you need to remove old or dead wood. However, for a more formal appearance, prune it regularly to keep it looking neat and prevent plants from taking over one another’s space. Cut it back to 4 inches in late winter, and then again by half its height in August. To produce more plants, you can take stem cuttings and root them.

Uses

• The bright flowers make good additions to bouquets or indoor arrangements, while outdoors they add color to hanging baskets, borders, edges and mass plantings. Autumn sage will cascade, so the plants make good additions to walls and the sides of containers. They attract both hummingbirds and butterflies, and their long summer bloom, extending well into fall, provides seasonal interest. Because of its high adaptability -- withstanding drought, poor soil, deer and even freezes -- autumn sage grows where many other plants do not.