RHS Growing Guides
How to grow sage
Our detailed growing guide will help you with each step in successfully growing Sage.
Getting Started
This richly aromatic herb thrives in warm, sunny locations, in containers, herb gardens, veg plots and even flower borders. The leaves have a strong, earthy, slightly peppery flavour. They can be used to flavour many dishes and are an essential ingredient in classic sage and onion stuffing.
Purple sage brings attractive colour to herb beds, borders and containers
Numerous plants have common names containing the word sage, including Russian sage (Salvia yangii), pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) and Turkish sage (Phlomis russeliana), but Salvia officinalis is the standard culinary sage. It's often referred to as common sage and there are many cultivated varieties of it (see Choosing below).
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Choosing
Culinary sages come in a choice of leaf colours, including variegated ‘Tricolor’
Look for varieties with an RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), which shows they performed particularly well in trials, and see our Recommended varieties below. You can view a wide range of herbs, including sage, in the RHS gardens, so do visit them for inspiration and growing tips.
What & where to buy
Sage is widely available from garden centres and online plant retailers, usually as young plants in spring and early summer. Larger plants in 2 or 3 litre pots are sold all year round. Specialist herb nurseries generally offer the widest selection of varieties. You can also buy packeted seeds of common sage from garden centres and online seed companies.
Recommended Varieties
Grey-green, large leaves with a strong flavour. Purple-blue flowers.
Bright yellow and green variegated leaves are well-flavoured. Pale purplish-blue flowers.
Purple-grey foliage and mauve-blue flowers. An attractive plant with good flavour.
Sowing
Common sage can be grown from seed, but plants will take at least a year to grow large enough to reach harvesting size. It’s much quicker and easier to start with bought plants or cuttings. However, if you do wish to grow from seed, sow them indoors in spring. Sow into small pots or modular trays of moist peat-free seed compost and cover with a thin layer of fine compost. Place in a propagator or cover with a polythene bag on a warm windowsill. Seeds should take about two weeks to germinate. Pot on the seedlings into larger modules or pots as they grow and keep them somewhere warm and bright.
Planting
Varieties of sage look good planted together and with other Mediterranean herbs
Planting in the ground – choose a location in full sun with free-draining soil that never gets waterlogged. If your soil is poorly drained, plant in a raised bed or a container to provide better drainage. Avoid planting too deep – ensure the top of the root system is only lightly covered with soil. Allow at least 30cm (12in) from neighbouring plants
Planting in a container – choose one that’s at least 30cm (12in) wide and deep, and make sure there are plenty of drainage holes in the base. Use a peat-free soil-based compost and mix in some horticultural grit (up to 25 per cent by volume) to improve drainage. Position the container in a warm, sunny spot, sheltered from strong winds.
Plant Care
Sage is easy to grow and needs little maintenance once established in a sunny position with free-draining soil. Regular harvesting of young leaves encourages bushy new growth.
Watering
Water newly planted sage during dry spells in the first year after planting. Sage is drought tolerant once established and shouldn’t need additional watering when growing in the ground. In containers, the compost can dry out quickly, so check regularly over the summer – aim to keep the compost slightly moist but not saturated.
In winter, excess rain can cause the roots to rot, so move plants in containers to a sheltered spot, such as in the rain-shadow of a wall.
Feeding
Sage growing in the ground doesn’t need feeding and should thrive even in poor soil. However, plants that have been growing in the same container for more than one year will benefit from a sprinkling of general purpose granular feed in late spring or early summer.
Propagating
Sage is easy to propagate from softwood cuttings
- Softwood cuttings taken from new growth in late spring or early summer
- Layer plants in spring or autumn by pegging low stems into the soil to root. This often happens naturally, so check for rooted stems around the edge of your plant and pot them up
Sage plants tend to get rather woody and straggly after six or seven years, so it’s a good idea to propagate new plants regularly as replacements – that way you’ll always have attractive and productive sage.
Pruning and Training
Harvesting
Sage leaves can be used fresh, or you can dry and store them for later use
The leaves are best used fresh, but you can also dry or freeze them. To dry sage, hang up some sprigs in a warm, dark, well-ventilated place. When fully dried, store the leaves in an air-tight jar. Freeze chopped sage leaves in an ice-cube tray, then simply add the cubes to your cooking whenever needed.
Problems
Sage is generally a hardy and healthy plant. Just make sure it has a sunny location and free-draining soil or compost that doesn’t get waterlogged. The leaves can be damaged by rosemary beetles, sage leafhoppers and capsid bugs, but these don’t generally cause severe problems so control isn’t necessary. Simply pick off any affected leaves if you wish. See Common problems below for more details.
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