In ,
Tyra Trevellyn wrote:

*Wellllllll......not to deflate the balloon and all that metaphor stuff.....but
*Salvia officinalis is known to be a relatively short-lived garden plant, from
*everything I've read and from my own experience. Last year I had a
*two-year-old plan† that threatened to take over, just as you describe, with a
*similar size. Gorgeous (this was the purple variety) and healthy, I kept
*taking cuttings for propagation and cooking. So.....this year, it barely
*showed up, and is now simply a few twigs with some new growth coming from the
*roots. I've leaving it in place, but I've already replaced it with a clone
*planted close by, grown from last year's cuttings. You can certainly keep
*cutting your sage back but be sure to take cuttings to root for next year's
*plants, if this one should fail. (It's quite possible that stimulating new
*growth by cutting it back could exhaust the plant to some extent, but I'm still
*thinking that the experts who declare it 'short-lived' must be onto something.)

I've got four clones of it already, actually, from last year and two
from this year.

*Anyway, enjoy it, 'cause a big bushy sage is a wonderful thing to behold. (You
*know, in all my years, I've never had a culinary sage flower for me, here in
*the northeast.)

Oh. Well, I'm right outside Philadelphia, and it flowers, man, does it
flower.

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large