Did you get a chance to review the previous discussion on this plant? For us in the east it seems to be a "tilting at windmills" plant. I bought the species last year from High Country and it seems to be doing fine in the barren area where it was planted - an area where well drained is an understatement. However, wiser heads in the other conversation pointed out that even if it survived it would be too much to expect the kind of flowers seen on desert grown plants which are subject to low nightly temperatures. Mine didn't bloom the first year so this spring will be the test.

A friend of mine has an extensive California native plant garden. He hasn't been able to get S. pachyphylla to survive more than a year or two. This is in inland southern California (Wildomar), with conditions that objectively would seem to be nearly ideal: hot, dry summers, cool nights in all seaons, and low humidity.

Thanks for your comments. I didn't notice the other thread until I had already posted this one. Too bad this forum doesn't have an edit or remove post feature.

Hello Laceyvail,

We have a S. pachyphylla and it does very well for us here in Nevada. Our conditions are so different than yours in West Virginia I also would wonder how much success you will have but sometimes surprising things end up working out so go for it.

Our S.pachyphylla is very dependable, it keeps its leaves all year, grows slowly but steadily, and blooms in late spring only. It is not like a greggii that will bloom all summer. HCG just came out with the 'blue flame' variety so I haven't tried it yet but plan to and would be surprised if it kept blooming through the summer. The California Sages being from the mediteranean climate of CA are used to getting rain predominantly in the winter so they enter a kind of dormancy in the summer.

Maria