Pineapple sage

Years ago we bought a small plant called Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans).  It was amazing, my kids loved it, I loved it, and it grew well for us.

Pineapple sage really smells like sweet pineapple.  Unlike many other herbs this one did not disappoint.  It was good in herbal 'tea', it was good in cooking, it looked nice, the flowers are pretty, there was nothing bad about this plant.

For a few years I took cuttings,  we harvested the leaves, and I protected it over winter as it dislikes frosts.  It can take a few light frosts, but repeated hard frosts can kill it.

Then we moved house, and a few months later moved house again, then my wife gave birth to our youngest son.  Somehow in all the chaos we lost our pineapple sage plant.

My son loves pineapple sage tea, so I searched for another plant.  I bought one that was labelled as 'golden pineapple sage'.  It was meant to have yellow leaves, but it didn't.  It looked just like my old plant, but didn't grow very fast, and the pineapple smell was surprisingly weak.  My son adores pineapple sage tea, but he didn't bother making tea from this weak plant.  There was no point, it was too mild that it was like drinking hot water.

The plant itself was also weak, even though I protected it the thing died over winter.  It was no great loss, that plant was inferior.

Then we got another pineapple sage plant.  This one was strong and green and vigorous.  It grew fast and smelled even stronger than our first plant.  All the pineapple sage pictures on this blog page are of this stronger plant.  It was an amazing plant, I really liked it.  Look how lush it is.

Pineapple sage growing well

Eventually autumn came, so I took some cuttings to over winter away from the frosts.  I also left the plant where it stood figuring winter would kill it.  When I got around to it I would remove the twigs.  I picked a lot of the leaves and dried them to use over winter.  It was actually pretty good dried.

Frosts were hard that winter, we had snow and hail and many frosts.  All the leaves and branches died.  I had a heap of cuttings growing happily out of the frosts so wasn't terribly bothered.

Then something incredible happened:

Can you see it in the middle of that mess?

Take a closer look:

The pineapple sage is sprouting, it survived winter!

The pineapple sage plant started to sprout from its roots.  It had survived the frosts!  That was unexpected.

From there the plant grew, and grew, and grew.  I took more cuttings and grew more pineapple sage plants in other parts of the garden.  This plant just kept getting larger and providing more and more leaves. 

Look at it grow!

Pineapple sage is delightful

Pineapple sage - it grew far larger than this

Eventually autumn came again.  I meant to dry some leaves again but forgot until too late.  I took cuttings to grow somewhere safe as I never want to lose this plant.  I also covered the plant in straw to see if it would survive another winter.

This winter has been the warmest I have ever heard of in this region, so my plant is doing just fine.  The branches have dropped most leaves, but some are still hanging in there and are green.  Not surprisingly all the cuttings are looking great too.

I sell small bare rooted plants over summer, if you are interested they will be listed on my for sale page along with other perennial vegetables for sale in Australia.  I can post to most states, but do have some domestic quarantine restrictions.