Pineapple Sage

Currently, my pineapple sage plants (Salvia elegans) are blooming in my garden. Members of the salvia or sage family, pineapple sage plants are herbaceous, tender perennial herbs. They are marginally hardy in my garden, sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t. But they are easy to find as small plants in the spring.

From spring to fall this year, these plants grew fast, developing many lateral branches. Now they are 4-foot high shrubs, several feet wide. All season long, I harvested the leaves. The leaves add a fruity flavor to many different types of beverages (makes a great hot tea), jellies, baking (line a pan with leaves before pouring the pound cake batter or cut leaves and add to batter), muffins, cookies, chicken dishes and chicken salads, butter, cream cheese, ice cream, sorbet, smoothies, etc.

These large shrubs bloom scarlet red flowers in October. The flowers can be cut for a vase or used in the kitchen as well. Interestingly, the buds begin upside down. Red petals poke through the nodding green flower stalk. As the stalk becomes vertical, more petals poke through until the stalk straightens up to several inches long of red tubular flowers. Pineapple sage flowers have the same type of sage or salvia bilabiate (two lips) flowers but larger. The flowers can be used as a garnish, frozen in ice cubes, beverages, fruit salads, butters, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, baked goods, and cream cheese.

In my garden, nothing seems to bother my pineapple sage plants. They are in moist, well-drained soil with part shade. They need space so it is best to plant them in the back of the garden as long as there is a path to be able to pick the leaves and flowers. They are hardy to zone 8. You can try to overwinter them by mulching them heavily, or by taking stem cuttings in the summer and bringing in the new plants to be in your home during the winter. But these plants are easy to find at the local nurseries. There are cultivars, although I have not seen those at the local nurseries but you can order them online. ‘Golden Delicious’ has golden yellow leaves; ‘Tangerine’ has a citrus scent; ‘Frieda Dixon’ has salmon pink flowers; and ‘Honeydew Melon’ has a melon scented and lime-green leaves.