California native sages

Sages, Salvias, truly drought tolerant California Native plants.

Depending on the flora there are 17 or 18 sages native to California. In California, the sages are visited by hummingbirds, bumblebees, wasps and bees. (Hummingbirds kill for sages. They defend the sages in their territory like they are the only water in the desert.) Sages are native in California along the coastal areas, parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains and into the upper desert.(The Creeping Sage, can sometimes be found in the lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.) In much of central California Black Sage, Salvia mellifera, sometimes grows along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. In areas like Los Angeles and San Diego, as much as a third of the vegetation may have been sages mixed with oaks ( Quercus spp.) , Toyons (Heteromeles arbutifolia) Mountain lilac ( Ceanothus spp.) , California sagebrush (Artemisia californica) and Rhus species . Sages can live for 30 or more years and are very drought tolerant. We have a few on the nursery property that were mature 23 years ago and are still living, even in a bad drought.