Perovskia or Russian Sage is one TOUGH plant. It’s also quite beautiful, with fuzzy silvery-blue buds that open to blue-violet flowers; adding long lasting color and texture to your garden.
Perovskia’s gray-green, finely dissected leaves have a clean, pungent smell – reminiscent of sage and mint. And while humans find the fragrance enjoyable, deer do not – which helps make this plant quite reliably deer resistant.
This plant is incredibly drought and heat tolerant, and even looks pretty in the winter when the dried-out silhouette and open branching catches the frost. Perovskia is a woody stemmed perennial and does go winter dormant. It requires good drainage and full sun and make sure to not keep it too wet. We like to wait to prune it back until spring arrives so that the crown stays protected from the winter wet. When you see new growth emerge in mid spring that is the best to time to prune it back hard and freshen it up.
Perovskia’s soft-looking lavender-blue blooms pair wonderfully with other heat lovers like Yarrow, Rosemary, and Salvia, as well as ornamental grasses or Yuccas. Butterflies and many types of bees are attracted to the late summer flowers. The straight species (Perovskia atriplicifolia) gets quite large, as much as 4′ tall and wide. But there are several newer varieties that stay more compact. We like ‘Little Spire’ at 2-3′ tall wide and ‘Blue Steel’ at 1-3’ tall and 18-24” wide.