Texas Sage

With its silver foliage and lavender blossoms Texas sage is a fairly slow-growing plant and may take up to 2 years to become fully established and bloom reliably. Once established, it is extremely drought tolerant and requires little care.

The word is that Texas Sage will only bloom after a good rain storm and it cannot be tricked it into blooming by watering heavily.  After a week or two of flowering, the blooms will fall off, but the silver gray-green leaves stay year round. This plant can eventually grow to around 6 feet tall. The older it gets, the more intensely it blooms. Bees love Texas Sage when it’s blooming.

Sun loving, drought tolerant Texas Sage is happy in poor and sandy soil.  As this is a native plant no fertilizer is necessary.

My Experience:

Easy to grow and requires little care Texas Sage is a great plant for those areas that do not receive regular water. Planted in a grouping it can be grown as a hedge or can be interspersed with other very drought tolerant friends – (red yucca and artemisia makes a good show).

These shrubs are often pruned into controlled shapes.  If you must do so, prune in early spring however they really look best when allowed to grow naturally.  You can prune them to keep them shorter or let them grow – I have one that is about 5 feet high.

Not sure about the necessity of rainfall for blooming.  Mine bloom in waves throughout the summer and seems to be encouraged to do so when I give them a little water.