It has the properly colored flowers and bracts for Salvia sclarea, but the leaves are not hairy enough. Are you in a really cool and cloudy climate, like England or Seattle?

Hot and humid SE Kentucky. I went back and had a look at the leaves to see if they were hairier than they appear in the photo, but they are not.

I agree with Rich, it does look like Salvia sclarea, but the leaves should be hairier. Could it possibly be Salvia moorcroftiana?

If anything, moorcroftiana has hairier leaves, and they are as wide as sclarea, but twice as long.

I'm sure it's neither S sclarea nor S moorcroftiana. The flowers actually look more like S algeriensis, which is an annual, with smoother leaves, but the bracts are too big for this and do look like S sclarea. Since none of the experts recognise it as a species, it's tempting to fall back on the last resort of the confused and suggest a hybrid - maybe S sclarea x S algeriensis? If so it will almost certainly die after flowering - if it turns out to be a good perennial, I give up!

I have S.algeriensis in bloom at the moment, and I don't think the plant in the photo is related. I would imagine that it is S. sclarea, performing differently in a humid climate. Normally this prefers dry conditions. By the way, could you have been sold this as 'Clary Sage' or Salvia turkestanica?

Robin, I really can't believe this is unadulterated S sclarea - N Wales is damp enough and it's always much, much hairier when I grow it. Isn't this also much too small? But I do think it must have S sclarea in it somewhere, so if you don't think it's related to S algeriensis, couldn't it be a hybrid with something else?

I have never grown S. algeriensis, but I did have Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica alba in another garden perhaps 80 feet away for a couple of years. Could that be the source? It is gone now. I thought it would be perennial but it behaved like a biennial. They were rather more robust than this plant, but the conditions in that garden are probably more Salvia friendly than where this guy lives.
Perhaps I am mistaken about sowing it myself. It is in a garden with other Salvias (glutinosa, lyrata, verticillata, farinacea, greggii, superba) and it is unusual that there is but the one example as I tend to plant in 3's or 5's, but I just assumed it's fellows succumbed to some natural event, like my rooster scratching around in them.
If it is self sown, it established itself last year as I remember that the basal leaves were green all winter. The tag I am trying to read could belong to one of the other Salvias nearby. I reviewed my seeding notes from last year and did not list sclarea or "clary" sage for 08. I have other Salvia's in various locations, none of which resemble this one. I suppose the one that comes closest would be S. pratensis, Swan Lake.
Thank you for working on my puzzle! I think I will harvest the seeds and grow some out to see if they are consistent with the parent.

Alana

OK, it's my bet it's a self-sown seedling from your S sclarea (which IS biennial), hybridised with something else - quite possibly Swan Lake. Since this is perennial, it will be interesting to see whether it survives once it's flowered.

There are a lot of Turkish and Central Asian sages with similar flowers to sclarea.