Herb · Lamiaceae
When to plant sage
Reliable for four or five years and then increasingly woody and sparse. Cut back after flowering to slow that down, and replace rather than rescue.
Start seed indoors
8 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Plant out
2 weeks after
Counted from your last spring frost.
First worthwhile crop
Year 1
After planting, not after sowing.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make sage plantable anywhere.
- Start seed indoors 8 weeks before the last frost.
- Plant out 2 weeks after the last frost.
- Expect a first worthwhile crop in year 1 after planting.
- Hardy in USDA zones 4a–8a.
Getting the timing right
Start indoors 8 weeks before the last frost or plant out after it. Never cut into bare old wood - unlike most shrubs, sage frequently fails to reshoot from it.
Frost tolerance
Hardy to around -20C. The leaves look wretched after a hard winter and the plant recovers regardless.
Classified as very-hardy, with damage expected below -20°C (-4°F)-4°F (-20°C).