When you work in horticulture for a couple of decades there is a tendency to think of plants as commodities.
You deal with them every day, after all, and it’s not just the beauty of a plant that concerns you.  Quite often it’s more mundane things like pot size, availability, freight, price, picture tags and other exciting aspects.
I have plants that I really like, and there are those that I have no use for, but I am a professional and I try not to let my personal biases allow my judgement to be clouded.
Having said that, one plant that I am very fond of is coming into bloom right about now.  I’ve had Perovskia atriplicifolia, the Russian sage, in my garden for nearly twenty years, ever since it was introduced.  It was the 1995 Perennial Plant of the Year and has definitely lived up to its billing.
Not only does it produce lavender-like flower spikes which last all summer, it is incredibly heat and drought-tolerant, qualities that are very important in our Okanagan gardens.
Russian sage is actually native to western Pakistan, but it was named after the Russian general V.H. Perovski.  It belongs to the mint family, and its long finely-cut grey-green foliage has a strong, somewhat unpleasant odour when it’s crushed.  This makes it unpalatable to deer, another important feature in many local gardens.
Perovskia makes a fine background plant in borders, as it grows three to four feet high and about three feet wide at maturity.  The foliage has a very light, almost wispy quality about it, but it’s anything but that.  Russian sage will survive our coldest winters with ease.  The only potential problem will arise if the soil is too heavy; they must have quick drainage and don’t do well in clay or constantly moist soil.
Gardeners constantly come across serendipitous moments where combinations seem to click, usually without any intelligent planning on our part.  Such was the case a few years ago when I planted yellow “Sonnet” snapdragons in front of Russian sage.
It was one of those instances where I had a bit of space to plant, and these snapdragons had to go somewhere so I stuck them in there.  It looked beautiful, but Russian sage looks good behind any annual with complimentary flower colours, or later blooming yellow perennials like rudbeckia or coreopsis.  It makes a great filler plant anywhere you need a good “blending colour” like light lavender-blue and combines wonderfully with pink roses like “Bonica.”
Cut Perovskia down to about a foot high each year in late March when the new spring growth starts to show.  It quickly grows back with the increasing temperatures, starting to bloom in late June and continuing until the first hard frost in the fall.
I’ve never had to spray the plant for insects, and the flowers provide a late season pollen source for bees.  The only drawback I can point out is that once the plants have been in the ground for several years you will notice new shoots surfacing around them in bare soil.  This happened with my plants, but it’s not like we’re dealing with a “thug” in the garden.  The shoots are easily controlled with a quick tug while weeding.