Height: 5 feet
Spread: 5 feet
Sunlight:
Hardiness Zone: (annual)
Other Names: Button Sage, Wild Sage, White Lantana
Description:
An upright, heavily branched woody shrub, with rough, oval shaped dark green foliage; presents terminal clusters of small, creamy-white flowers from spring to fall; drought tolerant and easy to grow; prune regularly to maintain dense compact form
Ornamental Features
Buttonsage features showy cymes of fragrant white flowers with buttery yellow eyes at the ends of the branches from early spring to late fall. Its serrated oval leaves emerge chartreuse in spring, turning dark green in color the rest of the year. The fruits are showy purple drupes with pink overtones, which are displayed from mid summer to mid winter.
Landscape Attributes
Buttonsage is a multi-stemmed annual with a more or less rounded form. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.
This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting bees, butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.
Buttonsage is recommended for the following landscape applications;
- Mass Planting
- Hedges/Screening
- Border Edging
- General Garden Use
- Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
- Container Planting
Planting & Growing
Buttonsage will grow to be about 5 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 5 feet. Although it's not a true annual, this fast-growing plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat. This is a self-pollinating variety, so it doesn't require a second plant nearby to set fruit.
This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It is very adaptable to both dry and moist growing conditions, but will not tolerate any standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. To help this plant achive its best flowering performance, periodically apply a flower-boosting fertilizer from early spring through into the active growing season. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in sandy soils, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This species is native to parts of North America, and parts of it are known to be toxic to humans and animals, so care should be exercised in planting it around children and pets. It can be propagated by cuttings.
Buttonsage is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its height, it is often used as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.
