Woodland Sage
Salvia nemorosa
An easy perennial with dense spikes of violet-blue flowers and aromatic leaves, best in groups at the front of a border, and bees, butterflies and hummingbirds work it all summer. Deer and rabbits leave it alone, and it takes drought and gravelly soil. Cut spent stems to the base and it blooms again.
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- Mature size
- 2 × 1.5 ft
- 0.6 × 0.4 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry to medium
- Blooms
- May–Jun
Woodland Sage at its mature size
A mature Woodland Sage grows 1.5 to 2 feet tall and 1 to 1.5 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Missouri Botanical Garden.
Through the year
What Woodland Sage looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Below ground · Nov–Mar
Dies back to the ground.
In leaf · Apr, Jul–Oct
Low clump of wrinkled gray-green leaves, no spikes.
In flower · May–Jun
Dense upright spikes of deep indigo-violet flowers.
Photos
Growing Woodland Sage
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Good for
- Drought tolerant, deer resistant, pollinators, and fragrant
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Europe and West-Central Asia
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Woodland Sage, that’s about 1.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Woodland Sage in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other salvias and sages
May Night Salvia
Woodland Sage
Autumn Sage
Scarlet SageAll drawn to the same scale.