There are hundreds of different sages (Salvias), but only a very few of them are edible. The one you want for cooking is Salvia officinalis - you need to check the botanical names on the labels of any herb you buy.

Why not check into the Salvia forum to see if they can help you ID your plant?

I'm inclined to agree, as well. You will need the culinary type of sage. Some of the other sages do indeed, smell awful.

I brought in a small sage plant to overwinter in my south facing window. It seemed to need more water than I imagined. The leaves were much smaller, as I did not supplement it with additional light during the winter.

However, it was nice to be able to pick a fresh leaf or two for winter cooking. And I came across this wonderful recipe for a sage butter sauce, and someone on one of the cooking forums suggested adding it to the butter mixture when making garlic bread. Sounds interesting.

As for sage when I lived in Michigan we had a sage bush that had to be very old. The trunk and the branches were wooden and very hardy. We had hard winters back then and nothing seemed to hurt that bush. Only picked the new branches but it had a great flavor.

I grew a garden sage this year and it smells terrible. I'm afraid to try cooking with it.

I think S. officinalis smells rankly of old, stale sweat! I find the scent of S. officinalis 'Berggarten' to be somewhat milder, so I grow that. I wonder if the composition of soil in which the sage (or any herb) grows influences the scent/taste....

Boxwood really smells like cat pee to me, however!