Salvia

Anise-scented sage is a tall, upright perennial in the mint family (Lamiaceae), native to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. NC State Extension and Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describe a bushy, square-stemmed plant 2 to 5 feet tall and wide that carries spikes of deep blue, two-lipped flowers with purple-blue calyxes from July into fall; NC State calls it a reliable nectar source for hummingbirds and butterflies, and notes that carpenter bees rob its nectar by biting a hole in the floral tube. The 'anise-scented' name is only partly earned: Wikipedia describes 'an anise scent when crushed,' but Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder says the bruised foliage has a very mild aroma with 'very little if any anise scent.' It spreads by tuberous roots that let it reproduce vegetatively (NC State Extension), so it fills a space rather than staying in a tidy clump. It is winter hardy only to about USDA zone 8a: farther north, grow it as an annual or overwinter cuttings indoors, though NC State notes the 'Black and Blue' cultivar is hardier and will survive milder zone 7 winters if well mulched. Neither NC State nor Missouri Botanical Garden documents an edible use or a toxicity hazard. NC State records, as ethnobotanical history, that the Guarani people of Brazil used it as a sedative; that is not a recommendation to take it, so treat it as a non-food ornamental. It has also naturalized outside South America (Wikipedia records it in New Zealand and Chile), so where winters are mild enough for it to persist outdoors, check your local weed or invasive-plant list before planting it.

A bushy, semi-evergreen small shrub (subshrub) grown for an exceptionally long succession of two-lipped flowers - classically bright red or magenta-pink, with many named cultivars such as the bicolour 'Hot Lips' - borne from early summer right up to the first frosts. Its small aromatic leaves are often said to smell of blackcurrant when crushed. One of the very best garden plants for pollinators in a hot, dry, sunny spot, it is tough and free-flowering but only borderline hardy (RHS H4): in cold-winter climates it needs a warm, sheltered position and sharp drainage and is often grown as a tender perennial. It is an ORNAMENTAL salvia and is NOT the culinary sage (that is Salvia officinalis) - it is grown for flowers and pollinators, not for food.

Clary sage (Salvia sclarea) is a big, aromatic, short-lived perennial or biennial of the northern Mediterranean and western Asia, grown as much for its bold architecture as for its scent. In its second summer it throws up branching spikes to about 3 to 4 feet, clothed not so much in the small lilac-to-white flowers as in large, showy, papery bracts in pink, mauve, and cream that hold their colour for weeks. The whole plant is powerfully aromatic, and it is the source of clary sage essential oil, long used in perfumery and as a muscatel-like flavouring for vermouths and wines. It wants full sun and sharp drainage, and because it is short-lived it relies on self-seeding to persist, so leave a few spikes to set seed if you want it to stay.

A Mediterranean evergreen subshrub with gray-green velvety foliage + lavender summer flowers. Among the most useful kitchen herbs + a strong nectar source for honey bees, native bumblebees, and solitary bees. Perennial in zones 4a-8b; longer-lived in well-drained alkaline soils.

A clump-forming herbaceous perennial in the mint family (Lamiaceae), native to Europe and west-central Asia. NC State Extension describes an erect, multi-stemmed plant about 1.5 to 3 feet tall and up to 24 inches wide, with wrinkled, toothed, gray-green aromatic leaves and dense spike-like clusters of lavender to violet-blue flowers (some cultivars pink) from June to September. It blooms in flushes - cutting spent stems back to the basal leaves brings a fresh round of flowers - and is drought tolerant, deer- and rabbit-resistant, and a magnet for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. A reliable, low-maintenance workhorse for sunny borders and pollinator plantings.

A Mediterranean-native evergreen aromatic woody subshrub long known as Rosmarinus officinalis (reclassified to Salvia rosmarinus in 2017 based on molecular phylogenetics). Highly drought-tolerant once established; pale-blue spring flowers; foliage harvested year-round in mild climates as the canonical Mediterranean culinary herb. Borderline-hardy in zones below 7 - overwintered indoors or treated as annual outside zones 8-10.

A woody-based mint-family perennial from the dry hills and grasslands of southwest-to-central Asia, grown for its haze of small two-lipped lavender-blue flowers tiered in branched terminal panicles above finely-dissected, aromatic gray-green foliage on stiff, square stems. It blooms from midsummer into autumn, shrugs off heat, drought, and poor soils, and is recognized for tolerating rabbits, deer, and urban conditions. Formerly classified as Perovskia atriplicifolia and not native to North America.

Scarlet sage is the classic red bedding salvia: a compact, clump-forming member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) that fills summer beds, edges, and containers with dense, upright spikes of long-tubed, bright red flowers set off by red bracts. It is a Brazilian plant, and Flora e Funga do Brasil records it as native and endemic to Brazil, in the Atlantic Forest; Kew's WCVP places its native range in southeastern Brazil. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describes square, upright stems 12 to 24 inches tall with dark green, toothed, oval leaves and flowers to 2 inches long from June until frost, and NC State Extension gives 1 to 3 feet tall; many cultivars are compact selections only 8 to 15 inches tall, in red, pink, blue, lavender, orange, white, and bicolor as well as the familiar scarlet. Both sources list it as a tender perennial that survives winter only in USDA zones 10 to 11, so nearly everywhere else it is grown as a warm-season annual and replanted each spring after the last frost. It is not drought tolerant and wants warmth (NC State Extension). The flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies, though NC State Extension notes that many cultivars bred for bedding have no nectar and are of little use to pollinators. Neither NC State nor Missouri Botanical Garden documents an edible use or a toxicity hazard, so treat it as a non-food ornamental. It is not the same plant as Salvia coccinea, a different species that UF/IFAS also lists under the name scarlet sage, nor the tall, blue-flowered anise-scented sage (Salvia guaranitica) that shares its Brazilian origin.