White sage

How to Look After Your White Sage Plant

January 25, 2019 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

This one goes out to all my lovely white sage customers…

White Sage seedling, nz, for sale, — **White Sage**

So, you’ve finally got your white sage plants, now what?

Here are some guidelines that I perhaps should’ve thought of giving you before you got your plants or when you got your plants.

OK, so, all of them have been hardened up, meaning they are used to the outdoor environment so don’t bring them and leave them inside your house.

Whilst they’re in their pot, place them where you want to ideally plant them to see if they seem happy there. Sunny, dry with a bit of space (at least 60cm apart from other plants) is what you’re looking for. Or if they’re going to be staying in a pot you can re-pot them into a bigger pot now if you like, go here for re-potting guidance..

White sage (salvia apiana) root structure — **White sage (Salvia apiana) root structure. This plant was about two years old to give you an idea of how big a pot you will need eventually if container growing.**

If you would like, you can nip out the two teeny tiny leaves that are just emerging from the top, this will help your plant bush out. Regularly check your plant for aphids and small caterpillars, they love the stuff, squash on site. Here’s a post about aphids if you want to know more about the wee blighters.

Aphids on a White Sage (Salvis apiana) plant — **Aphids on a White Sage (Salvia apiana) plant**

Observe your plant, they do prefer to be on the dry side but whilst they’re young they need a little bit more than when they are more established. So if you see the leaves slightly drooping; water. Now.

Some of you are worrying about winter, really, this article is long overdue. You see a lot of us get our information from the big ol world wide web, like, right now! But a lot of articles are written in the Northern Hemisphere and they have a very different climate. For one, our sun is a lot harsher. A lot of plants are actually better off growing in part shade (like basil) than full blown sun that is recommended, so take that in mind if you notice any of your plants that look a bit sunburnt. Also it snows in a lot of places which means you may be getting information that isn’t relevant to your climate zone. I’ve been growing white sage in quite a lot of different climate zones in New Zealand and my observation has been that Salvia apiana is a very hardy plant. We’re in Eketahuna here and it is cold, we got some knarly frosts last winter and all my white sage plants frankly looked beautiful for it. Those leaves are stiff and sturdy, they’re not prone to frost burn. If your plants are in pots by all means move them to a more sheltered spot and/or cover your plants with frost cloth if you’re nervous.

white sage care, New Zealand winter — **White sage with morning frost**

Like succulents and cacti though, during winter I would hardly water my white sage plants at all. (Just as a note, planting your white sage with succulents or cacti is a good idea, looks nice and similar watering needs).

That’s all I can think of right now. If you have anymore handy hints please comment below for everyone to see. If you have a question, use the comment section as well, because if you’re asking someone is probably wondering as well!

Cultivating White Sage Smudge Sticks

November 2, 2018 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

If you grow white sage you may find at this time of year your plant is getting a bit “leggy”.

‘ello ‘ello ‘ello, what have we here?

The very tall wands that are coming out – if the leaves are tiny at the tip – will flower. Unless you want to save seed, it’s best to cut this out.

This is what the flowers look like if you’re curious.

Salvia apiana in flower

Close up of white sage flower

You can dry the stem you’ve just cut because the base of it should be fairly bushy. Dry it whole with the leaves hanging upside down. If you are drying for the purposes of making a smudge stick, don’t let it dry completely before tying up, wilted really is what you’re after.

On other stems you can tip prune which will encourage more leaves out of the laterals (the bit between the stem and a main leaf) giving you a thicker smudge stick come harvest time.

The laterals are the leaves coming out from between the main stem and leaves

This is what will happen after some time.

Bushing up

The coast of California is where Salvia apiana comes from. I’ve got a theory that in it’s natural habitat it probably gets blasted by wind and stems breaking is a common occurrence (good news for those that live by the coast). Because if you have it in a sheltered position and don’t tip prune it at all, particularly in the early days~ this is what happens. One long plant.

Lone stem ranger

There’s hope yet for these guys though, find the lowest active lateral and trim from there.

Looking for laterals

So don’t be afraid to give your plant a wee trim here and there, now is a good time, whilst there’s plenty of growth action happening you’ll get a stronger plant for it. Make sure that any pruning you do is on a fine day with another one forecast for the next day.

Dry upside down, out of sunlight. This picture is blurry (sorry!) but you don’t want them any drier than what it looks here to make your smudge sticks.

Drying white sage

Here’s a link to making your own smudge sticks using ingredients other than/as well as, White sage. Please note on what is said about common sage (Salvia officinalis), not to be burnt!

Up-Rooting

August 30, 2017 By SandRa Timmins 2 Comments

It’s not often you get to see the root structure of perennial herbs. So this is really interesting…

White sage (Salvia apiana) root structure

This is the root structure of a two year old White sage (Salvia apiana) plant. See how it’s quite wide and shallow? White sage likes really dry situations so it’s roots don’t go deep in search of moisture. Knowing a plants root structure is really handy if you’re container gardening or wanting to grow plants close together. So in the case of the white sage – if you’re going to grow it in a pot it doesn’t need to be deep as it needs to be wide. Most plants roots go as wide as its foliage does.

Now. Why on earth am I up-rooting my beautiful white sage plant? Because we have been up-rooted, and like this plant in the photo our roots are now hanging in the air looking for a new piece of earth.

Our landlords are selling up and we have til the 16th November to find a new place to live. The greatest fear for renters is having the moving decision made for them (and rents going up), this is the first time it’s happened to us out of the blue. We’re pretty damn gutted to say the least; and I’ve put so much mana into this garden…sigh!

I’m frantically digging out all my plants before they put on their spring growth and freak out with being dug up. Because we don’t know where we’re going to end up and whether it will have established gardens. Everyone is going into containers as though they’re going to stay in pots.

Off to the shadehouse to recover, lemon thyme, purple sage and common sage.

I also want to take as much as can as I know that the landlords method of gardening extends only as far as the Roundup spray nozzle.

Here’s a wee sample of what I’ve done.. (just the main herb bed)

Here’s what it looked like when we moved in

Feb 2016

At it’s peak beautifulness..

Feb 2017

And now that I’ve reclaimed everything!

Aug 2017

Being that both Josh (Of husband and Industrial Fusion fame) and I work from home we have quite a few requirements for our new abode and have to look throughout the North Island. So it’s a bit up in the air as to what markets I’ll be going to this season. I will still be doing mail order though. Due to the crappy timing of all this I won’t be growing as many tomato plants.

So this is life at the moment, will keep you posted when we know more. At least I have plenty of white sage now ready to cleanse our new home!

Salvia apiana ready to dry for smudge sticks

Summer Sun Have Me Some Fun!

December 30, 2015 By SandRa Timmins 1 Comment

Evening Sun Sunflower

Hope you had a good Christmas as we had~ the sun has brought out the party hey!

If you have white sage (Salvia apiana) in the garden don’t water it.

If you have stevia in the garden, water and mulch!

I read somewhere recently- can’t remember where- that sunflowers were/are grown in South America in boggy areas to dry them out. Which will be why white sage grows so well near sunflowers (in non-boggy situations)

White sage loves dry conditions and sunflowers will ensure that their white sage companions will have those dry conditions by sucking up any water that comes their way. Beautiful!

And happy happy new year! I have plans of expansion for 2016, I’ll keep you posted! What’s your plans?

It’s-a-seed sowing time!

August 17, 2015 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

….and working out what new seeds you need, almost more exciting than when you see the first leaves emerge….almost! My white sage (salvia apiana) and clary sage (salvia sclarea) have just popped their heads up and I’m pretty excited!

Look closely!

I sow my seeds onto damp seed raising mix. Note, “onto” not “into” I’m dealing with herb seeds which are notoriously small. I then lightly cover with vermiculite and pop ’em into the hot water cupboard. They’re in a box with a glass lid on top (ie. old fridge shelf). I check them everyday and give them a misting of water if need be and whip them out into the light as soon as I see any plant emergence. I don’t want any leggy seedlings!

So Clary Sage and White Sage are on the go. I’ve also sown Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) , Common sage (Salvia officinalis) Genovese basil, Sunflowers, Chilli and Zucchini.

Look real close, it’s Stevia rebaudiana!

Salvia officinalis hasn’t germinated yet, the seed I sowed in a tray outside a couple of months ago has just started to come through looking really strong. So I’m intrigued as to how well and how fast my my indoor lot will germinate.

From the 18th August to the 27th is optimum time according to the moon calendar to sow seeds for above ground plants. I’m going to need to make more space in my hot water cupboard for all the tomatos’ and more herbs I’ll be sowing over the next week or two. I don’t strictly follow the moon phases for gardening but they come in handy as a guideline.

Plum Blossom

I’ll be updating my website soon with what seedlings I’ll have available for sale this year… I might work out the whats’ and hows’ involved in being able to send seedlings to people.

Is there any interest out there outside of Kapiti?

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