After being gone for a week, I was happy to see that the Pineapple Sage in our herb garden is blooming. If you don’t grow many herbs, or if you are just looking for something that is going to have great color in the fall for your garden, I would highly recommend pineapple sage. It is not winter hardy here, so treat it like an annual. It grows best in the summer, but it needs the shortening days of early fall to initiate bloom.

As an herb, it is a bit more of a challenge to use, probably because of its thick leaves and rather fuzzy leaf texture. That can be a bit unappetizing. But…it has a lovely scent and nice flavor if you can get past the texture.

If you are looking for some other great “sages” for fall flower color, check out the Autumn Sages – Salvia greggii. Autumn sage is grown as a perennial farther south, and it is pretty low maintenance – not much water needed. Here it will need to be treated as an annual, but it gives great fall flowers!