Plant Database
California Blue Sage
Salvia clevelandii ‘Winnifred Gilman’
Salvia clevelandii 'Winnifred Gilman' is the most celebrated and widely planted cultivar of the California native Cleveland Sage, prized for its exceptionally fragrant, silvery-gray-green foliage and its profuse, vibrant blue-violet flower whorls . This evergreen shrub forms a dense, perfectly rounded, bushy mound of small, narrow, aromatic leaves that release a powerful, clean, classic sage fragrance when brushed . In late spring through summer, it produces abundant, deep magenta-purple flower stalks bearing tiered whorls of two-lipped, dark blue-violet flowers that emerge from showy, reddish-purple buds, creating a spectacular display that attracts native bees, hummingbirds, and other pollinators . Extremely drought-tolerant, heat-loving, and low-maintenance, it is an outstanding choice for Mediterranean gardens, fragrant gardens, water-wise landscapes, and wildlife-friendly native plantings.