How to Grow Sage: A Flavorful Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Using This Classic Culinary Herb

I somewhat neglected my spice plants this summer and it is only my second season growing them so I still have many questions. The most important one right now is, can I use the fallen sage leaves? They are clean, but gray. They fell in the pot I have the plant in on my deck. Crushed, the leaves smell great. I am hesitant to store or cook with them until I get some advice. Thanks.

Tough call. Only you know how clean the leaves are—The color sounds normal. Unless they appear moldly or the like, they are probably fine.

If you hesitate to cook with them, crush them to add fragrance to a room. Pick others and dry them yourself for use in cooking.

Great review on sage plant will plant several

Thanks, Andy! Good luck with your plants!

I purchased a small white sage plant from a local nursery about 2 months ago. I transplanted it to a large terra cotta pot in my front yard about 2 weeks after I brought it home. The plant seems to be doing well. It has grown several inches since transplant. I noticed though that a few of the older leaves are turning a dark reddish purple. I know some varieties of sage produce some purple leaves. But I didn't think that happened to white sage. Should I remove these or leave them be? There is no yellowing and after looking around the internet for common sage diseases I didn't find anything like what I'm seeing.

Hmm. We found one source that says the leaves may turn purplish in times of severe drought. This is, however, a drought-tolerant plant, which can be killed if watered too much, so be careful if you want to see if a little water helps; water very sparingly -- normally this plant can go weeks without water (just relying on rainfall), although newly planted ones need a little more. Has it been cold out at night? Sometimes that might discolor leaves as well. We're guessing it likely isn't due to high temperatures, since the plant is adapted to such. Perhaps leave the discolored leaves as is, unless they start to crinkle, dry, or show signs of disease; if they are healthy looking but just purplish, it might be best to let them be, especially as the plant may still be getting used to its new pot.

What do I do when sage flowers? Should I cut them off? Will flowering have an effect on the flavour when used as a herb?

Our sagest (sorry) advice on this is No! Leave the blooms on. You can use them in cooking (e.g., float on a soup), plus bees love them! Thanks for asking!

My sage plants have strange black flecks/particles all over them. They do not resemble eggs or bugs and honestly look like flecks of soil. I have been monitoring them and they can't be particles of soil. They appear to be the cause of my sage leaves near the base of the plant turning brown at the tips and quickly dying and falling off. I have tried a dishsoap and water treatment as is they were pests as well as manual removal but they keep coming back. I cannot find anything remotely similar in literature or on the internet. Does anyone know what is causing this and how I can remedy it? Thank you so much!

I also have the same black flecks on my tricolor sage plant that I bought a month ago. I live near Philadelphia, PA, and bought my sage plant at a nearby farm. They are tiny, hard specks (like dirt) that sit on the leaves and stems. I reviewed 'Southern Blight' and the nematode advice posted, but it is not either of those things. The 'specks' do not seem to be a bug, or even alive in any way; they are the consistency of dried coffee grounds, or black pepper from a pepper shaker, and can be easily brushed off. I brush the flecks off, and then a few days later those specks are all over the plant again, and on the kitchen counter where the plant sits. Just like Katie said, they are like black specks of dirt. At first I thought they might be seeds, but I honestly don't know anything about sage plants, and I'm sure you are probably all laughing hysterically by now. My plant seems to be otherwise healthy.