The fragrance of the plants in my garden is important to me; I rarely buy a rose that doesn’t have a lucious old garden rose smell about it. And I am equally drawn to vegetables that smell “right.” For instance, if one of my tomato varieties does not smell like tomatoes from my grandmother’s kitchen, I never grow it twice.

Garden Sage
Image Credit: Bonnie Plants

Today, I was repotting some of my 4: sage plant in gallon pots, and the fragrance of those plants carried me to late fall, flannel shirts, wood smoke curling from a chimney, and Thanksgivings down home.

Pineapple Sage in Jacki Kellum Garden

Don’t get me wrong, I also grow sages with other fragrances. Pindapple sage has a fabulous pineapple scent about it. The red in the above photo was blooming in October–along with my Heavenly Blue Morning Glories. I had planted the pineapple sage in May, and I had almost given up on it. But plants are great teachers, They teach us to be patient, When the pineapple sage began blooming, it put on a show.

But no sage is more important than my garden sage. I love it as an herb to perk up several things that I cook, but I love it equally for the way it smells