Texas sage has been in its glory, but that’s not always the case in Dallas-Fort Worth

If drops in barometric pressure, local rainfall and high humidity are triggers for getting a plant to come into bloom, Texas sage should have been flowering its branches off this past week. And it has! It’s been a dazzling display that has sent many a gardener into local nurseries to pick up plants of their own.

I’m going to share a lot of personal feelings about Texas sage. I’ve been growing it on and off for more than six decades, and over that time it has both excited me and broken my heart. I have stories to share.

This is a native Texas plant. Botanically, it’s Leucophyllum frutescens. According to the respected Missouri Botanical Gardens, the genus name is from Greek leucos meaning “white” and phyllon meaning “whitish foliage.” The species name frutescens refers to the plant’s shrub-like growth habit.

Since the plant is native to the Chihuahuan Desert and north into Southwest Texas and New Mexico, we’ve adopted the Spanish word for ash (“ceniza” or “cenizo”) as its common name. That’s logical. So is the uncommon name “barometer bush” that refers to its tendency to throw out blooms two or three days after a rain shower.

But the name “Texas sage” seems to have emerged as the most commonly used of the common names in recent years. I found one shaky reference to steeping the plants’ leaves for some kind of herbal tea to ease the onset of the common cold. “No vote” from me. I’ll stick to more standard remedies, thank you. But I’ll use the common name nonetheless.

Lesson Number One: This may be a plant that’s native somewhere in Texas, but it’s not native in your yard. Nor is it native in mine. Oh, wait. This newspaper is read far and wide, so perhaps I might have misjudged on that remark, but my point is that a plant is only native where you find it growing in nature. On its own. Without our help.

Put in simpler terms, if Texas sage were native to North Central Texas, you’d see it growing here on our hillsides. But you do not. It’s too cold here and the plants freeze — remember February 2021? Texas sage plants were sent to the compost. Most growth above the snow line was injured or killed. The Christmas freeze of 2022 (just six months ago!) did a big number on many that remained (or had been replanted).

It also rains way too much here. Texas sage plants aren’t thrilled with that. In their native homes they typically see 15 to 20 inches per year. We’re double that — and beyond. And, our heavy black clay gumbo soils retain a ton of that water for long periods of time, and the Texas sage roots rot in the process.

Those are places where Texas sages will break your heart like a boy’s first girlfriend break his. But you adjust. You work around it by planting fewer Texas sages to minimize your losses the next time a cold spell comes visiting. You “plant them high” (on a berm or a mound) to ensure good drainage. And you have a piece of frost cloth handy to cover them anytime that temperatures will drop into the mid-teens or colder. You learn to cope.

You also learn what lace bug damage looks like on Texas sage leaves. It shows up in the heat of the summer. You notice small tan stippling on the tops of the leaves, and when you turn them over you see small black specks peppered all over the foliage. Those are the droppings left behind as the insects feed. Look closely and you may even see the small pests themselves. They’re about the size of BBs and they’ll have clear wings. However, the mottled foliage and black specks will be your best clues that it’s time to spray with a general-purpose insecticide labeled for lace bugs.

Since they go dormant in winter and may even lose many of their leaves, it’s best to position Texas sage plants in front of dark evergreens like junipers or hollies to showcase their silvery summer foliage in contrast with the dark green leaves. They need full sun to grow and bloom to their very best potential.

There are several improved cultivars of Texas sage. The standard form grows to be four to six feet tall and three to five feet wide. Green Cloud is one of the largest cultivars, to six to seven feet tall and six feet wide. It was introduced 40 years ago by my friend Benny Simpson. He chose that name because of its green foliage. And he also introduced White Cloud with white blooms against silvery foliage. They were the result of breeding work I watched Benny conduct in the mid-1970s while we worked alongside one another at the Texas A&M Center in Dallas. He spent many days walking the hillsides around George West, Texas, stalking the elusive red-flowering Leucophyllum. I really enjoyed eating lunch with Benny and hearing his stories of all his plant hunting. He was one of our best.

Silverado sage is another cultivar, this one more compact. And others have been brought into the nursery industry since that time.

So, that’s the story of my life with Texas sage. Hopefully I’ve not discouraged you from trying it, but instead, given you facts so that you can succeed. Have fun with it!