Salvia mellifera repens can be a relatively flat fragrant shrub with dark green foliage and light blue flowers. In interior heat this black sage becomes a lower version of itself and can get to be 6' across with a 3' mound in the middle. Unless you are right on the coast, Creeping Black Sage has to be pruned a little at first to keep it low.
Creeping Black Sage likes full sun and good drainage, but tolerates heavy adobe as long as the water doesn't stand after a rain. This plant prefers loam or good draining clay. It will grow in sand or gravel but looks yellow-green instead of green. Needs no summer water in most areas. Better looking and a lower fire hazard with a once-a-month spritz of water. Not very cold hardy. It has frozen badly at 27 deg. f. will not recover at about 20 deg. f.. We've had customers in the Sierras tell us it has made it there with temperatures of 15.
In a landscape use as a component of a large ground cover. Most effective on coastal bluffs where the salt spray burns the foliage off most plants. Mix with Salvia 'Pt. Sal', Hummingbird Sage, Baccharis 'Pigeon Point',Ceanothus 'Yankee Point', Encelia californica, and Artemesia 'Canyon Gray'.
Inland in places like Los Angeles or San Luis Obispo use with Salvia 'Mrs Beard', Ceanothus 'Yankee Point', Baccharis 'Pigeon Point', Salvia munzii, and Salvia 'Pozo Blue' to make a mix of a large ground cover that needs about 5 minutes of sprinkler watering once a week after first season.
Here's a native sage page where you can see all the Salvias of California.
Salvia mellifera var. repens tolerates seaside conditions, alkaline soil, clay and deer.
Salvia mellifera var. repens is great for a butterfly garden.
Foliage of Salvia mellifera var. repens has color green, is evergreen and has fragrance.
Flower of Salvia mellifera var. repens has color blue and has a fragrance.
Communities for Salvia mellifera var. repens:Coastal Sage Scrub and Coastal Strand.
ph: | 5.00 to 8.00 |
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usda: | 9 to 10 |
height[m]: | 0.30 to 0.70 |
width[m]: | 1.00 to 2.00 |
rainfall[cm]: | 35.00 to 77.00 |