Painted Sage Salvia viridis seed

LATIN NAME: Salvia viridis

COMMON NAME: Painted Sage

The painted sage holds its showy, pink and green bracts above the small, hooded flowers, and the whole plant stands in the neat, upright clumps. The upright, branching, annual plant carries the oval, toothed, softly hairy, green leaves and the dense spikes of the small, hooded, white or violet flowers, wrapped in the showy, pink, rose, purple or green bracts, through the summer, one of the fine, bright sights of the border, drawing the bees. The plant is a fine, historic presence of the old garden, and it is a plant of the open, sunny, deep, well-drained ground.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The painted sage is a curious subject of the plant science, and the coloured bracts keep showing up in the work on the ornamental sages. The way the showy, pink, rose, purple or green bracts wrap the small, hooded flowers has been studied closely, and it keeps appearing in the studies of the ornamental sages, the bract-flowered plants and the members of the mint family. The oval, toothed leaves and the upright, branching habit have also made it a fine study plant, and the painted sage is a regular subject of the work on the coloured bracts of the warm world.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

The painted sage is a fine, bright plant of the border and the cut-flower patch. The dense spikes of the small, hooded, white or violet flowers, wrapped in the showy, pink, rose, purple or green bracts, open through the summer, one of the fine, bright sights of the border, drawing the bees, and the stems come to the vases as the fine, colourful cut flowers of the warm season. It is one of the fine choices for the border, the cut-flower patch and the study collection, and it has been written up in the horticultural and the botanical papers for the coloured bracts and the bright ways. It is a fine, bright plant of the open, sunny, deep, well-drained garden.

Give the young plants the deep, well-drained bed, and the coloured bracts will rise in the first summer.

To grow the painted sage from seed, sow the small, brown seeds just below the surface of the tray of fine, gritty soil, with a light press, keep the tray in a bright, open spot and water gently, then set the young plants out in the open ground. The seedlings are up within a week or two and grow on fast. With the sun and the deep, well-drained ground, the coloured bracts will rise through the summer.

An annual sage, both ornamental and useful, native to parts of Europe. Grows to only 1-2ft, with pretty, colourful flowers that can be air dried and used in arrangements. The leaves are quite aromatic and have a variety of edible uses, particularly as a flavouring

Fine border plant. Floral bracts are intensely coloured purple or pink. Leaves and seeds increase inebriating quality of liquors when added during fermentation. Infusion used for sore gums.