Re: Russian sage

For those of us in the Northeast, this sage and any sages for that matter are 
not happy with the short growing season.

We are all done too soon for them so they never get a really good root 
system.  They cannot get started soon enough in spring and for me are cut 
down by frost in September.

I thought you could not win until I saw some huge billowing purple plants not 
too far from me.   They were on a berm.  They must have warmed up early and 
were in gravely very well drained soil.  These plants were well above the 
ground level of this garden.  It has been said before here and is true in the 
North, they must have full hot sun to do well, that is grow into catalog 
pictures.  The soil should never be soggy.  You can add some sand or gravel 
to any soil to get it to warm up earlier in the spring.  Remove any mulch 
early, the sages are not bothered by spring frosts.  Get the plant higher 
than the surrounding plants.

To maximize the sun,  plant without obstruction from north or south so the 
plant receives all day sun.  Ordinary culinary sages bloom for me about one 
year in three and that would depend on an early start in the spring.

The tender variegated sages will live over here in a cold frame.  Ditto for 
some ornamental salvias. If a plant is not doing well and you have moved it 
around and talked to it, you might buy a new one and start over.  One never 
knows what the plant may have contracted along the way.  It may not like your 
garden and that is that sometimes.

A happy thought is that sages ornamental or culinary do not seem to mind 
drought conditions.  Some them form enormous root systems, way larger than 
the top growth.
Another thing about the Russian sage (Perovskia) is that it grows along all 
season making great expansion late in the summer when it gets ready to bloom. 
 Tanacetum niveum is another greyleaf that does that.  You have a small plant 
growing along and in a very short time (when the time is right) it triples in 
size and produces millions of little white daisies.  Perovskia does that here 
in the late summer if it remains warm through September.

For Cheryl, the oriental (perennial) poppy should do OK for you.  Are you 
sure you are not chopping it up in the summer while it is resting?  Some of 
us have immaculate weed free gardens thereby removing summer sleepers and 
many seedlings that appear at various times of the year.  If you have 
accidentally sliced through a dormant bulb it would be about the same thing.  
If you start with the orange species, not a hybrid, first you will have 
better luck.  The hybrids, removing the brilliant orange for pinks and 
lavenders, are not as strong and take much longer to become a patch.  The 
orange species can actually become a weed in well drained soil.  Poppies do 
not need much help with enriched soils.  They do well in excellent drainage 
and left alone until fully matured foliage (all brown) appears.  If you cut 
them back too soon, that will also be a problem.  The pinks are lovely but 
will not acclimate as easily as the common ones seen all over New England in 
early summer. I have some old orange orientals that I have been trying to 
eradicate.  Along with some tradescantia, some ajuga and some kind of 
stoloniferous Hosta that was a gift.

Claire Peplowski
NYS z4   - with 4 more inches of snow today.

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