Leucophyllum frutescens

The Desert Sage or Texas Sage, in Latin Leucophyllum frutescens, is an evergreen bush of semi-desert climate that deserves to be planted more often, particularly in very dry Mediterranean regions where it excels. It forms a beautiful bush with a dense and regular aspect covered with silver foliage and delivers a magnificent soft pink flowering at the end of summer, with the return of the rains. This rebirth accompanies that of the dry garden which often welcomes autumn with great pomp, like a second spring. It is a perfect companion for garigue plants that have the same growing requirements. You can plant it in the rockery, on a slope, in a raised flower bed, but also in a large border along a path.

The Leucophyllum frutescens is a bush from the Scrophulariaceae family. It is native to the more or less desert regions of southern Texas and northern Mexico. It is a plant very well adapted to lack of water, to coastal regions and to calcareous soils, and which withstands cold quite well under good growing conditions (down to -10/-12°C in peak). The desert sage quickly forms a large bush about 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in) high and 1 m (3 ft 4 in) wide. Its whitish, somewhat stiff stems carry a dense light grey, very bright foliage. The leaves are small, about 2.5 cm (1 in) long, oblong, slightly undulate, covered with a fine down which gives them their light colour. The underside of the leaves is almost white. The foliage persists in winter. Flowering takes place between late July and late October. It is triggered by a supply of water following a dry and hot period, thus being able to renew itself two or three times in regions where it rains little in summer, in successive waves. On the other hand, in Mediterranean gardens that experience 3 months of marked drought in summer, the flowering is unique and brief, but massive, in September-October. The small flowers are born at the leaf axil, they are small irregular villous corollas, with petals fused at the base, measuring 2 to 3 cm (0.8 to 1.2 in), light pink-mauve in colour. The flowering of this bush attracts pollinating insects.  

The Leucophyllum frutescens is a plant perfectly adapted to drought: its fragile flowers hide a solid temperament and robustness to any test. It is used in flower beds, in rockeries, on a slope, but also as a low hedge to border a path for example. Create a perennial flower bed with staggered flowering by mixing the foliage and scents of lavenders (blue, white, pink), rosemary (creeping or upright), Atriplex, bushy sages, oregano, cistus, nepetas, euphorbias for dry soils (E.characias, E. cyparissias). Its combination with the Polygala myrtifolia, the Teucrium fruticans Azureum and the evergreen ceanothus Automnal Blue that bloom at the end of summer in dry gardens, is very successful.  Growing in large pots is possible, by taking care of the drainage and distributing abundant but distant watering to the plant in summer, allowing the substrate to dry a little between waterings.