Salvia Spathacea (Hummingbird Sage)
The hummingbird sage colony showing its early spring color
This year’s seemingly unstoppable atmospheric river hammered a lot of plants here at the Acre. But it’s also given some of the natives and impressive boost.
One of the natives currently growing like gangbusters is Salvia spathacea, or hummingbird sage. It’s a low growing, large-leafed sage that does well under the native oaks. The oaks here are kind of mean and secrete an oil that prevents most other plants from growing under them.
Most of the other native sages are upright shrubs that grow several feet tall. Hummingbird sage on the other hand is a low creeper that prefers to expand by root instead of seed. A slow grower, it’s taken about four years to colonize a 20 foot by 20 foot area. It now provides a nice pink and green contrast to the tall blue flowers of the black and Cleveland sages nearby.
Being natives, they flower in the winter / early spring and survive just fine without water in the summer. But, if you do give them regular water in the summer, they’ll keep their leaves and continue to grow instead of going dormant.
Reestablishing a Native Colony
When I was a kid growing up in Southern Orange County colonies of these sages grew along the creeks and valleys, turning the brown-green landscape temporarily pink in the spring.
Hummingbird sage’s spiky pink flower
Then they bulldozed everything to create a miles of mass-produced tract homes. The oaks were cut down, and what remained of those creeks and valleys were overrun by invasive non-native plants.
By the time I came graduated college and returned to Southern California, these cool little plants were totally wiped out in the area.
When I moved down to San Diego County a few years later, I was pleasantly surprised to see them growing along the slopes of the Santa Margarita River, which is a habitat preserve courtesy of the United States Marine Corps.
I wasn’t aware Hummingbird Sage grew this far south as rainfall here is considerably less than it is an hour to the north. But, it turns out they do, so I have taken it upon myself to try and expand the native colonies.
I don’t much luck growing these from seed, but they’re easy enough to divide and transplant. They do grow very slowly, but I hope to have several colonies well-enough established that they take off and recover a lot of the habitat the lost to human encroachment.
Salvia Spathacea Plant Details
| Plant Details | |
|---|---|
| Common Name | Hummingbird Sage, Pitcher Sage |
| Botanical Name | Salvia spathacea |
| Plant Family | Lamiaceae |
| Native to | North America |
| Plant Type | Evergreen perennial |
| Mature Size | 1-2 ft. tall |
| Sun Exposure | Full shade to full sun |
| Soil Type | Any (not picky) |
| Soil pH | Any (not picky) |
| Water | Low. Needs more when young |
| Bloom Time | Spring-Summer |
| Flower Color | Rose Pink to Fuschia |
| Hardiness | Zones 8-10 (USDA) |
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I really enjoyed reading your description of seeing Salvia spathafolia in your youth. I grow it here in my Menlo Park garden (we live in an Oak Woodland) and it is easy to transplant the “pups” that appear as it spreads. I have many sages in our garden that is planted for birds and butterflies. Your propagation page is the best I’ve seen. Would Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum be grown from cuttings the same method? Happy Fall! Shelley
I’m actually trying to re-establish a butterfly sage colony down in an oak woodland on the north end of the Acre. So far it’s doing pretty good. As for the redflower currant, yes, you can definitely propagate it with root clumps. As long as you keep the area pretty moist while it’s getting established you should have no problem (fall & winter are a perfect time for that).
I have an old and pretty ragged bed of hummingbird sage in my garden. I put it in the wrong place, so it gets too much very hot sunshine in the summer, but it has survived. There’s a lot of dead growth and it’s not blooming as much as it used to. It has spread out quite a bit. What would you suggest as the best way to rejuvenate the bed? Since it is easy to transplant parts of it, I’ve been thinking that maybe rooting a few plants in a better situation and then just trying to cut the bed back, or even putting something else in that can tolerate the high heat in that bed, would be the nicest looking solution. However, I’m interested in Native Plant and I don’t mind When they go dormant. If you have any other ideas than what I suggested, could you send them to me?
Yes, I’ve noticed hummingbird sage is not a fan of direct sun all day. In their native habitat they’re living under California live oaks and getting partial / dappled sunshine, so they’d be much happier somewhere like that. My best colony lives under a pine / eucalyptus / oak canopy where they get 4-5 hours of sun, most of that dappled.
As you mentioned, they’re pretty easy to transplant. Being native to a dry climate, these sages are low and spread mostly by root runners, so any plant that grew and flowered this year will die back and the next plant on the runner will be the new growth and flowering the next. So those are the ones you want to move.
Once you find a new place for them, I’ve found the best way to keep them contained and denser growing is to water one area really well (moist but not to the point of being a swamp). Then the roots don’t need to spread as far to seek water, and you get denser, taller sage colonies. Hummingbirds do love these, so when you’ve got a dense colony in flower, you’ve also got a flock of hummingbirds (and butterflies).
As for that high sun area you’re moving those sages from, you can replace them with more sun-loving natives like black sage or Cleveland sage. Those are taller plants, so if you need something lower growing, check out “Bee’s Bliss” sage. It’s a Cleveland sage cultivar that’s creeping low-grower like hummingbird sage, but it loves full sun.