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What Does Wild Sage Look Like – Important Information

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Wild sage is an excellent addition to your vegetable garden. You can plant it near a window or patio where it is fully exposed to the sun and watch the butterflies migrate towards it. A beautiful wild sage leaf and small flowers will add texture and color to the landscape.

If you want to create the best garden fast, wild sage is suitable for its growth rate, which is moderate or fast. Plant it near American Beautyberry and Bahamian Coffee for a beautiful original butterfly garden. Continue reading this article and get the answer to what does wild sage look like.

What Does Wild Sage Look Like

What Does Wild Sage Look Like
Oak Sage via Pxfuel

Wild sage is hard to miss in the field because of its bright purple tassels that stand out among the grass. It grows in bushes, 30-40 centimeters in height. Typically, the leaves are dark green, narrow, elongated, and rough to the touch. Inflorescences forms brushes of violet-blue color.

Meadow sage, oak sage, and whorled sage have a lot in common. They differ mainly in the arrangement of flowers. In oak sage, they are collected in dense panicles.

In meadow sage, flowers are more rarely located on the stem, and in Whorled Sage, they are arranged on the branch in tiers like fluffy skirts.

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Sowing Of Wild Sage

Sowing wild sage in open ground is also permissible in the fall, but as late as possible so that the seeds do not have time to sprout young shoots before the arrival of frost (not earlier than the end of October).

So the seeds will successfully wake up in the spring. Wild sage is sown in rows, the row spacing is about 50 centimeters, the distance between plants is 20 centimeters, and the sowing depth is 4 centimeters.

Subsequently, it will be necessary to thin out the plants or sow more, depending on how the shoots appear.

It should be noted that the germination rate of wild sage seeds is very high. If sage is planned to be planted or sown in spring, the soil is pre-enriched with nitrogen fertilizers.

Seedlings grown in a permanent place feel well without transplanting for about seven years. To preserve the purity of the species, different varieties of sage should be cultivated remotely because the plant is inherent in cross-pollination.

Meadow sage What Does Wild Sage Look Like
Meadow sage via Flickr

Reproduction Of Wild Sage

Various plant propagation methods are used, including seminal, seedling, dividing the bush, using layering and cuttings. Even the most inexperienced gardeners will be able to quickly breed medicinal sage or ornamental salvia in their backyard without any extra work.

To obtain seedlings, the seeds are pre-sown in a close way from February to March. And after about 10-15 days, you can observe the first growth.

After three weeks, the seedlings can be divided into separate pots for planting. It is permissible to plant seeds in open ground from April but subject to a warm climate. Before sowing in spring, the seeds should be prepared by soaking them in a growth stimulant solution.

You do not need to do this before sowing for the winter. For grafting, take hardened sage shoots and cut them into 15-centimeter cuttings.

Then they are placed in water, and already at the beginning of the third week, the appearance of the first roots can be observed. In the last summer days or the first autumn, wild sage shoots are planted. After all, the plant actively forms strong shoots and the taproot system.

Whorled Sage SALVIA VERTICILLATA What Does Wild Sage Look Like
Whorled Sage (SALVIA VERTICILLATA) via Wikimedia

Collection And Harvesting Of Wild Sage

As a rule, there are two collections of wild sage: summer and autumn.

1. Summer sage harvest

In early summer, wild sage is most saturated with essential oils and the leaves and flowers harvested at this time. The wild sage collection begins as soon as the inflorescences start to bloom. For drying, select entire dark green leaves and pluck them along with the cuttings. 

Wild sage inflorescences are also harvested. Branches are cut off, on which the lower flowers have already blossomed, and the upper ones are still in buds. If you cut off fully blooming inflorescences, the lower petals will fall off during drying, leaving stems bare from below, which are of little value.

2. Autumn harvest of wild sage

The second harvest of wild sage begins at the end of September when the plant recovers from the summer heat. By this time, beautiful velvety leaves grow on the sage bushes again, and flowers begin to bloom.

Wild sage is dried in the open air under a canopy so that the sun’s rays do not fall on the plants spread out in a thin layer.

Use Of Wild Sage As Medicinal Value

Wild sage has a wide range of medicinal properties, such as sedative, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and Antimicrobial. It is often used for viral infections, liver, kidney, and stomach diseases.

The substances contained in wild sage improve digestion, normalize the glands’ work during digestion, and have a choleretic effect. Wild sage also helps with such unpleasant symptoms as bloating, which increases and enhances appetite.

The beneficial properties of wild sage are also due to essential oils in its leaves, up to 0.5%. The seeds contain 20% protein and 30% oil.

Therefore, medicinal wild sage is used to treat respiratory diseases. It is added to medicinal preparations for the treatment of bronchitis as an expectorant. The scent of the essential oil can relieve headaches and beat stress.

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Diseases And Pests of Wild Sage

This plant is independently capable of resisting pathogenic microorganisms. After all, wild sage has insecticidal properties and belongs to herbs and medicinal plants.

But a lot of watering increases the risk of mold damage. It is very important to monitor the degree of soil moisture and prevent water stagnation

In case of mold damage, the first aid is the sulfur solution. If the planting is too tight, spider mites, slugs, or thrips are likely to be present. You can spray with garlic infusion, 100 grams of onion husks poured with liters of boiling water, add 10 grams of grated laundry soap.


Conclusion

Wild sage is the herbaceous perennial shrub that is resistant to drought but defenseless against frost. It is propagated by dividing the bush or by seeds. 

If planted in spring, then the first crop can be harvested from the end of August. The average height of the wild sage is 30-40 cm. The leaves are dark green, narrow, elongated, and rough. With this article, you get complete information.