Advertised as smaller variety of White Sage , Salvia apiana ‘Compacta’ is currently enjoying my parkway where it can get full blasting sun and low water. Plant sages where you can access them so you can enjoy them. On hot days the volatile organic compounds in their leaves evaporate, perfuming the air as you walk by. Sages also need to be pruned once a year— having them in a place where you can’t get to them will cause them to become gigantic and woody with sparse leaves and exposed trunks. Some might enjoy the gnarled, twisted branches and that’s absolutely fair, but in my small yard I have to stay on them with tip pruning in the late winter and a once a year reduction in size by about a half to a third. Sages are survivors and can endure no water in the summer, but tend to look best with a deep soak every once in a while.

White Sage is one of the more aromatic sages and is well loved by pollinators (Apiana stems from the root word ‘Apis’ which means bee in Latin) and is endemic to Los Angeles and San Diego, so stop planting Agaves and plant this instead! Combine with dark leafed plants in the background for interesting contrast. I’ve always wanted to do a Moonlight Garden with a Ceanothus in the center and rings of White Sage around it.

Salvia apiana ‘Compacta’ occurs in the desert on the other side of the San Bernadino and San Jacinto Mountains. On a California Botanic Garden Video I heard Bart O’Brien (Cowriter of ‘California Native Plants for the Garden’) state that it may not be any smaller, it’s simply a variety from the Desert. We’ll see in six years :-).

Calscape