Salvia apiana.

The bee sage, literally: apiana comes from the Latin apis, bee, because the botanists who named it could not ignore the din rising from its flowering wands. It grows wild in the chaparral and coastal scrub of southern California and northern Baja California, on dry stony slopes where almost nothing else holds on. A sacred plant to many Indigenous peoples of that region — among them the Chumash, Tongva, Cahuilla, Kumeyaay and Luiseño — it is today a victim of its own reputation: wild stands are being stripped by commercial harvesting to feed the smudge-bundle trade. Growing your own is precisely the answer to that.

An evergreen perennial subshrub with almost unreal silver-white foliage, thick resinous leaves that release a powerful camphor-and-balsam scent when crushed, nothing like the common sage of our meat pies. The mound reaches 60 to 100 cm and widens with age; in late spring it throws up long wands that can climb to 1.5 m, set with white flowers streaked with lavender. Be warned, it is not hardy here: born of a Mediterranean climate, it will not survive our winters in the ground. Grow it in a pot, outdoors all summer, brought into a very bright room before the cold, and it will live for years. In the ground, treat it as an annual.

Grower's tip: this is a capricious seed, and we would rather tell you up front. Three to four weeks in the fridge — cold-moist stratification, in a bag with barely damp vermiculite — markedly improves emergence. Then surface-sow without covering, since light triggers germination, in a very free-draining sandy mix, and mist rather than water. Gentle warmth, 18 to 22 °C. Be patient: seedlings come up unevenly, and a tray that looks dead can still push up plants three weeks later. Once they are up, the most common mistake is too much water, never too little.

• Open-pollinated. Perennial, not hardy in Québec: grow in a pot and overwinter indoors, or treat as an annual.
• Height: 60 to 100 cm mound, flower spikes to 1.5 m.
• Bloom: late spring into summer, white streaked with lavender. Excellent bee plant.
• Exposure: full sun, as much as possible.
• Poor sandy or stony soil, perfectly drained. Drought-tolerant once established. Tolerates neither standing moisture nor rich soil. Space 60 cm apart.
• Slow, uneven germination: rate of ~25 to 30%, in 7 to 21 days. Start indoors 8 to 10 weeks before last frost.