mexican sage

When we went to the garden center the other day, as well as the California Poppies, we also bought a plant called Salvia Gesneraeflora which I later learned was commonly known as Mexican Sage. This was good news for me as I only live a short distance from the Mexican border, so I figured the climate it was used to was similar to mine. It was about three feet tall with bright flame colored flowers. The day I bought the plant was gray with a marine layer coming in, and the bright red flowers really stood out.

However, on close inspection when I got home, the plant did not look too healthy. Many of the leaves were dry and shriveled with brown tips. So it was the usual question for me, did it need watering, or did it have some kind of disease? Well, I guess I could start by watering it when I repotted it. It did feel really dry. Repotting was also not easy as the delicate flowered stems kept breaking off, so the three foot tall plant was now about two feet tall. On the tag that came with the plant it said that it had very large, bright red flowers in fall, winter and spring, so I guess this could just be the normal leaf drop at the end of the flowering season. Just to be on the safe side, I put it right at the back near the fence in a kind of quarantine, so if it did have any deadly leaf disease, nothing else would catch it.

So now after a week has gone by, I am just watching its progress and waiting to see what happens. So far, some of the flowers have fallen off, but there are new leaves coming through that look green and healthy. This was described as the "mountain form" of Mexican sage, so I am hoping if it can live wild on the mountains, it can manage to live in my container garden.