When, and for how long does a Sage plant flower?

Question

I am thinking about planting them. I live in Ottawa, Ontario zone 4/5 ish. All i know is that they are kinda purply when they flower. When do they flower, and for how long?

Answer 1

Sage is the common name for many of the salvias. There are both tender or annual as well as cold hardy salvias used ornamentally & there are culinary salvias.
Culinary Garden Sages include the many colored variants and some dwarf forms like Salvia officinalis minum. These are grown for the leaf color in tricolor, golden, & purple.
These are short lived woody plants usually good for a few years with heavy pruning to just beyond where flowers are showing. Do not prune into old wood, prune til two pair of leaves are left. These are Zone 5 hardy.
Cold hardy salvias
Salvia x superbas include Blue Queen, Rose Queen, and May Night. They range from 18-36" tall and bloom in spring with a fall repeat.
Salvia pratensis, Blue Meadow Clary is another hardy and attractive plant.

Annual or only zone 8 hardy ornamental sages;
Scarlet sage - Salvia splendens is now available in many colors not just red

Victoria sage Salvia farinacea flowers all season and is very tidy.
Indigo Spires is a hybrid of Victoria Sage with 18" spikes of blueish purple.
Canary Island Sage - S. canariensis come with pink flowers on wooly stems
Mexican Blue Sage - S. chamaedryoides has the truest blue flowers and mounds nicely at 2x4'
Pineapple sage -S. elegans- has long red tubular flowers.

There are many more but these are some more popular ones. All of the annual sages bloom spring til frost but dead heading them keeps them coming faster.
Most salvias like a lot of sun and the annuals need an organic rich soil to bloom their best.

Answer 2

it depends if they are perenials or annuals if annuals they will bloom all summer as long as you pinch the dead shoots off new ones will bloom. If they are perenials i am not sure of the bloom time my suggestion is if you want bloom for the season you want annual plants