PlantSowGrow
How to plant and care for Sage (Common)
Salvia officinalis
🌿 Herb
🔁 Perennial
Soft grey-green leaves for stuffing, butter sauces and roast pork, with violet-blue summer flowers for bees.
When to plant and care for it
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Prune
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Sage (Common): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water until established; drought-tolerant after
- Soil
- Poor to moderate, very well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 45 cm
- Height
- 60 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- Little or no feeding
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 5–9
Step by step
- On planting day
Plant
Plant at the same depth as in its pot, 45 cm apart, in a sunny, sheltered spot. Firm in.
- 0–1 days after “Plant”
Water In
Water well, then keep just moist while it settles in.
- 30–51 days after “Water In”
First Light Harvest
Once it is growing strongly, snip a few sprigs — never more than a third of the plant at once.
Every year
- AprilSpring Prune
Cut back by about a third as new growth starts, to stop it getting woody and leggy.
- JulyTrim After Flowering
Shear off spent flower stems and tidy the shape.
- SeptemberCheck for Woodiness
Sage gets woody after 4–5 years. Take softwood cuttings in summer to replace old plants.
