Plant · P-589

Clary Sage

Salvia sclarea

Clary Sage is a biennial herb that spends its first year as a low rosette of woolly leaves before sending up a tall flower spike, setting seed and dying in its second year. The flowering stems are distilled into muscatel oil, an ambergris-scented fixative used in perfumery and soap, while the leaves and flowers have a long history as a beer and wine flavoring and the seed forms a soothing mucilage once soaked in water. It self-sows so readily that any planting becomes a self-perpetuating stand without replanting - cutting the spikes before they set seed is the only way to stop volunteers building up a persistent seed bank. It tolerates almost any well-drained soil and handles hard winter cold easily, but needs full sun and cannot take shade at all.