Salvia verticillata Alba

The Salvia verticillata 'Alba' is a white and compact form of the Whorled Sage, which usually offers lilac-mauve flowers. This sage may not be the most spectacular, but like nemorosa sages, it is a perfectly hardy plant and easy to grow in ordinary soil, even poor, but properly drained. It forms a beautiful bushy clump of grey-green foliage and upright stems, cascading in habit, adorned throughout the summer with small white flowers that are very honey-scented, clustered at the top of green stems that gracefully bend under their weight. This highly hardy variety naturalizes easily and forms a beautiful blanket for lean soils and slightly wild areas of the garden.

The Salvia verticillata is a perennial herbaceous plant with a horizontal rhizome native to southern and central Europe, and western Asia. It grows spontaneously along roadsides, on barren hillsides, mostly on limestone soils. This plant, like all sages, belongs to the family of lamiaceae or labiates. The 'Alba' variety, fast-growing, forms a compact clump, at least 20 cm (8in) high and 50 cm (20in) wide, composed of triangular leaves, with crenate-dentate edges, soft, hairy, and greyish-green in colour. They emit an odor when crushed that may be unpleasant. The flowering, nectar-bearing and honey-scented, appears from June to September if faded flowers are regularly removed. The flowering stems, 50 cm (20in) tall are branched. They are branching square-sectioned stems, bearing small leaves and white flowers, clustered in their upper part of the stems. It has excellent hardiness in healthy and well-drained soil. The plant slowly spreads through its rhizome and readily self-seeds in light soil.

The 'Alba' whorled sage is vigorous enough to outcompete weeds. It excels in natural beds, on slopes where it helps maintain them with its deep anchoring roots, allowing it to draw moisture even during heatwaves. Therefore, this plant will be perfect for maintaining the soil in rockeries or banks near water points. It is a very resistant plant, tolerating periods of drought once established, even if the beauty of its foliage suffers and Spartan growing conditions. It tolerates lime well, even growing on chalky slopes, and endures harsh winters without weakening. In beds, associate it with clary sage, common sage, along with old roses and Nepeta x faassenii, lychnis coronaria.

With over 900 species of annuals, perennials, and soft-wooded shrubs distributed throughout the globe, except for very cold regions and the tropical forest, the Salvia genus is the richest in the lamiaceae family.