In A Desert
Garden
"Jerusalem Sage - Phlomis"
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About 10 years ago I went to my first "High on the Desert" Conference. I liked this event so much that I haven't missed one yet. I always find something interesting and a lot to learn. Plus the fellowship and the good food makes this a memorable event. When I moved here to the High Desert, I knew gardening would be a challenge and as I wanted to do my own landscaping I had to learn a lot. The first thing I did was to take the Master Gardener's course only to decide that I might as well hire a Landscaper to do the hard work, like grading and making islands and gravelling everything and of course digging the really big holes for the trees and putting in the irrigation system. Once I had the backbone of my yard I could go ahead and put in the plants I wanted to grow. I found out that it was a lot easier to dig the holes after the yard had been graveled, the gravel retains moisture and that makes it easier to dig. Now I was ready to get some really neat plants. I found just what I was looking for at the High on the Desert Conference. The vendor there had plants one couldn't find at that time in the local nurseries. Of course that has changed somewhat. One of the plants I purchased was Jerusalem Sage - Phlomis russeliana. There is a variety of Phlomis species, most of them are shrubs and I have never come across any of them, there are only 2 perennials. P. russeliana is a Mediterranean plant found in the mountains of Syria. My plant thrives on neglect. In 10 years, I have to admit I have never fertilized it and it seems to do just fine. It is planted in my front yard, tucked in between huge prostrate Rosemary, another Mediterranean plant and a small Crape Myrtle. The Crape Myrtle is deciduous and as I never remove the leave litter, the Jerusalem Sage gets enough fertilizer to live on. It is very drought tolerant, but a little extra water will bring more flowers. This is really an unusual looking plant, 2 ft high and by now 3 ft wide. The leaves are gray green and velvety and the flowers talks are whorls of soft yellow flowers that are still attractive after they faded. I read that cutting the spend flowers will produce a second flush, but I never find the time to do it and I love the dried flowers just as well. This Sage is of course not a real sage; I think it got the name because the flowers resemble those of the Chaparral Sage. I love the gray green foliage that looks like velvet between the deep green of the Rosemary and the reddish green of my Crape Myrtle. I only wish this plant would be more readily available. |
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