Have you ever smelled California Sagebrush? It’s intoxicating. Every time I walk past it in the yard, I stop to gently brush my hand against the leaves, hold my hand up to my face, and inhale. The aroma is so wonderful! Sage-like, but sweeter and less pungent.

I’ve put four sagebrush plants in the yard so far. Two of them seem to love growing low to the ground with twisted, curved branches. The other two are growing more vertically. They all look pretty happy right now in the cooler, wetter conditions, with green feathery leaves. In the summer, their leaves change and they look almost dead. (I thought I had killed the first one I planted last summer, but then I did some research.) The plants protect themselves from the summer heat and dryness, then bounce back in the wintertime.

At some point, they will grow yellow flowers. I can’t wait to see what insects come to visit! California Sagebrush can grow up to 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I’m looking forward to them being one of the prominent plants in the front yard.

p.s. Confession time: When I went outside to take these sagebrush pictures, I got distracted by the coyote bush seedlings. Or what I thought were coyote bush seedlings. I had repotted one all by its lonesome in a big pot, so I decided to pop some of the other seedlings in there with it. As I was doing that, I realized I was smelling the wonderful scent of sagebrush. Doh! They even LOOK like sagebrush and nothing like coyote bush. Gotta go back and edit some previous posts now…. Gardening can be humbling. 🙂

For more reading:

• California Sagebrush is an important medicine plant for some Indigenous peoples. (I’m intrigued to learn more about its pain-relieving properties.) See iNaturalist’s info page for more.
• Learn about efforts to save the Sagebrush Sea in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming (it’s a different sagebrush from the California one, but so important to all kinds of life in the American west).