Garden sage varieties for the kitchen and garden

When you talk about sage, you usually mean the popular garden sage (also called spice sage). In our overview we present the best garden sage-Slocate before.

In addition to the numerous sage species, in the local gardens one mostly finds varieties of the garden sage (Salvia officinalis). The variety ranges from vigorous to compact, from unicolored to multicolored, to varieties that do not flower at all.

Is garden sage hardy?

Before you buy a sage in haste, you should find out about the characteristics of the respective variety. Because sage is fast planted, but just as quickly many of the varieties offered in the garden center are wiped out during a severe winter. Some of the goods on offer come from wholesalers in France, Italy or Spain. Garden sage varieties are also cultivated there, which do not tolerate our climate. Be careful with the multicolored varieties such as 'Tricolor' or 'Purpurascens'. The disappointment is great when the plant, which has grown so beautifully, does not survive the winter. Therefore, multicolored sage should be cultivated and overwintered in pots. In wine-growing regions, these varieties can also be planted out in a sheltered spot. Protection with brushwood or fleece is still necessary.

Garden sage varieties for the kitchen

All garden sage varieties are actually suitable for cooking. However, if you want to have the most intensive aroma possible, the 'Extracta' variety is particularly good. The sage varieties 'Berggarten' and 'Windeck' have very broad leaves and save a lot of work and time when preparing food. If you want to use sage for smoking, you can use very aromatic and slightly resinous varieties such as 'Extracta' or 'Nazareth'.

The best garden sage varieties

The following overview is intended to give an introductory insight into the respective suitability of the variety of spice sage:

Compact-growing garden sage:

• Alba: White-flowering sage variety with quite compact growth; also suitable for keeping in buckets; intense, pleasant aroma; slightly bitter.
• mountain garden: Sage variety with large, broad leaves; therefore ideal for preparing saltimbocca or similar; very good aroma; quite compact growth.
• Nana Alba: Like Nana, only with white flowers; pleasant aroma; well suited to culture in pots.
• Nana: As the name suggests: very compact variety with small, narrow leaves; ideal for culture on the balcony.

Normal to vigorous garden sage:

• Crispa: Sage variety with a very special look: the leaves are quite wide, downy and clearly curled at the edges; very good aroma.
• extracta: breeding with a very high content of essential oils; particularly intense in taste and also suitable for smoking; Since you only need a few leaves for seasoning, one plant in the garden is usually sufficient.
• Nazareth: Very downy and silvery variety from Israel; Leaves are oblong, narrow; very good, intense aroma.
• non flower: Anyone who does not grow sage as an ornamental plant, but only to harvest the leaves, should fall back on this variety. This does not form flowers and can put all the energy into the formation of shoots and leaves. Flavorful and very good.
• rosea: Particularly beautiful variety with pink flowers; Quite small leaves for a cultivar, but with a sweetish aroma.
• Windeck: Similar large leaves and good aroma as Berggarten, but more vigorous; rather unsuitable for pot culture; but very good aroma and ideal leaf size for processing in the kitchen (saltimbocca, etc.).

Garden sage with variegated leaves:

• Creme de la creme: Sage variety variegated to creamy white especially at the edges of the leaves; two-tone: creamy white - green.
• Aurea: well-known sage variety, which is often also referred to as golden sage; golden-yellow to green-yellow variegated leaves; good taste.
• purpurascens: Leaves of the higher and younger shoots are violet in colour; later these become green-grey; beautiful appearance, good taste, but similar to the Tricolor variety only conditionally hardy.
• tricolor: Variety with a particularly beautiful leaf appearance: the leaves are white-green variegated, with the leaves of the higher shoots in particular turning purple to pink. Requires a very well-protected location in Germany, as it is less tolerant of frost than other varieties.