Pineapple sage flowers attract hummingbirds to butterflies, making your garden look fabulous.
The best part is that the Salvia elegans also make excellent cut flowers. As you guessed, the name comes from the pineapple scent 🍍 of the foliage and makes for a seasonal treat.
The pineapple sage plants sprout a flower spike in a cardinal-red in later summer and fall, and if you live in an area that does not freeze, the red flowers continue into winter and, if you are lucky, all year.
Plant Name: Salvia elegans
Other Name: Pineapple Sage
Plant Type: Tender Perennial, Subshrub, Herbaceous shrub
Native Areas: Mexico and Guatemala
Light Requirement: Full Sun, Partial Shade
Watering: Moderate
Fertilizer: Organic matter or compost
Toxicity: Non-toxic
Temperature: Mild climates
Propagation: Tip cuttings, division, and seed
Growth: Up to 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide
Soil Type: Well-drained soil
USDA Hardiness Zones: 8-11
More About Salvia Elegans
Crushing the Salvia elegans leaves and flowers give you a fruity aroma with a hint of sage. Still, the strength of the scent can vary from one climate to another. It is a late summer blooming plant and fast-growing shrub in warm zones and belongs to the mint family.
But if you live in cool regions, these nectar plants are grown annually. In a herb garden, the striking dark to bushy foliage stands out. The leaves and flowers are edible and grow well in containers to move indoors like overwintered plants.
In the native regions of Mexico and Guatemala, you find them growing in pine and oak forests. The edible flowers are added to a fruit salad as well as the yellow-green leaves. It also grows semi-woody, and the square stems are covered with bright green leaves with fine hairs.
When in bloom, it has a fuzzy appearance, with the ovate leaves having serrated edges while the flower spike forms and open branched clump, and the nectar attracts the ruby-throated hummingbirds.
Types of Pineapple Sage Flowers
You can find several sage cultivars, and the ones here are sure to inspire you:
Salvia elegans ‘Honey Melon’
The plant will bloom earlier in summer and has compact growth reaching 3 feet tall. It has a melon-like fragrance when crushing the leaves.
Salvia elegans ‘Scarlet pineapple’
It is a cultivar widely available to grow and produces tall stems with large blooms. Both the leaves and flowers have a red tinge.
Salvia elegans ‘Tangerine’
It has a citrus fragrance, and it also has smaller foliage. It is an early bloomer with darker flowers.
Pineapple Sage Plant Care
When it comes to sage pineapple care, it is a frost-tender perennial subshrub. Hence, it needs a warm and sheltered sunny spot in the garden. The pineapple sage leaves and flowers are aromatic, but they can grow quite large and might need staking, pinching, and pruning to keep them looking great.
Also, while here, check out our care articles on the Mexican Bush Sage and the Texas Sage.
Light Needs Salvia Elegans
These herbs need a lot of light to thrive, so full sun in the morning with afternoon shade will produce the best-tasting foliage.
Salvia Elegans Soil
Salvia elegans adapts to different soil types, especially fertile consistently moist, and filled with organic matter. Still, it does not do well in soggy conditions, and a crucial thing is well-drained soil.
Watering Salvia Elegans
Sage-Salvia elegans is somewhat drought tolerant, but the foliage will wilt and curl up when it becomes too dry. With the right moisture during the growing season, it provides healthy foliage and will prevent leaf drop. After planting pineapple sage, you may need to water them often.
Temperature and Humidity
When living in mild enough climates, you need not worry about frost. But in cold regions, the first frost will cause your plant to die back to the ground. But you can always grow them as a plant indoors or in containers to move as needed.
You can cut back the pineapple sage leaves in winter and add a layer of mulch around the roots in early fall, and it should grow in spring.
Fertilizer
Feeding pineapple sage does not need much commitment, and it only needs fertile soil. So if you have poor nutrient soil, add some compost or organic matter in spring, which should be enough to provide your plants with new shoots to enjoy.
Pruning Sage Salvia Elegans
To keep your pineapple sage compact with a bushy, dense growth habit, it helps to pinch off the young tips. For older sage plants, annual pruning can be done in late winter or early spring by removing the older woody branches to encourage new growth.
But we recommend waiting until after hard frost as the woody stems protect the plant.
Propagating Pineapple Sage
The easiest way to propagate your plants is through tip cuttings or division. Use tip cuttings from new shoots with leaves instead of woody stems and flowers for the best success. You can place the cuttings in water or a moist rooting medium, and you need not use a rooting hormone.
Keep the rooted cuttings indoors to plant in the ground in late spring, as late frost will kill them.
How to Grow Pineapple Sage From Seed
The best way to grow pineapple sage from seeds is to start them indoors unless you live in warm climates where the soil remains warm for the seedlings to develop. You can expect the seeds to germinate within a fortnight, and best to wait to transplant them outdoors until they have eight-inch tall stems.
If you live in colder regions, keep your seedlings indoors for the first year to transplant outdoors the following spring.
Common Pests
Pineapple sage grows without many problems as it is deer-resistant and might be bothered by:
Mealybugs
Spider Mites
How to Get Pineapple Sage to Bloom
When you grow pineapple sage, it develops a late bloom, but it has flower buds similar to the honeysuckle that are both striking. Still, the red flowers are mostly appreciated outdoors in warmer climates.
The tall stems reach out with flowers growing two inches long in late summer and early fall. Hence, for your plants to flower, you must provide them with the right moisture levels with full sun and warm temperatures.
You will surely see a lot of hummingbirds to bees when food sources become scarce in the fall in your garden.
Frequently Asked Questions
The herb has a moderate growth rate but also depends on the growing condition. The seeds germinate in two weeks, and your plants can reach a full height in one growing season.
You can grow the herb indoors, but it does not do well for a long time in artificial lighting. So, choose a spot where it can receive full sun at the window. Still, these shrubs grow large, and you will need a large pot to support the root system.
The leaves and blooms you can eat as it has a sweet flavor to add to teas, jellies, salads, and desserts. You can dry the leaves to use as potpourri.
Sage-Salvia elegant is usually used for spiritual cleansing as it helps promote positive energy to enhance creativity. Pineapple sage also has anti-inflammatory properties used in cooking or as a medicinal herb.
The smell it gives off is fantastic, and the flowers to leaves you can use in food. You can use the red blooms in cut flowers as they have a pineapple scent.
Pineapple sage is a short-day flowering plant with loads of health benefits, and you can hang garlands of the plant in the home to ward off negativity or use it for smudging or burning the herb.
Whether you want to buy, sell, or simply reach out to other plant enthusiasts, Plantly is the right place to be!
