Pruning roses and sage

Although I usually start pruning my roses when the almond trees bloom, this David Austin rose, Benjamin Britten, seemed to want to jump the gun. 




That's a scary thought, considering it was already 10 feet (3 meters) tall.  I have to laugh, because I just saw that the Austin webpage gives a height for this rosebush of only 4 ft (1.2 m).  Yes, that is just how good a gardener I am (ha, ha).    



 This is how much I took off.

Tah-dah!

My supervisor seemed to approve.

I have mentioned before that my favorite non-rose plant is sage, specifically Salvia officinalis.  It stays green all year, is drought-tolerant, has lovely blue-violet flowers in spring, and it's edible (Thanksgiving turkey stuffing wouldn't be the same without it).  What plant can top that?  If you live in my climate, you need sage.

It can, however, get quite big.  It also self-roots if the branches are in contact with the soil.  Last year, I planted daffodils near this sage plant...
         

...and now they're under it!

So, the sage got a good pruning, too, and much of it had already rooted,

so now I have new sage plants!

 Guess who else needs a good "pruning"!  

Sage cuttings

Well, while I may have had luck with hands-off rose propagation techniques this winter, I have found that the same lazybones approach has definitely not worked with my sage (salvia officinalis).  Sage does exceedingly well in La Mancha, or at least it does in my garden.  It withstands extreme sun and cold, provides healthy green color all winter long, blooms with pretty blue flowers in spring and is drought resistant but can also tolerate soaking wet clay soil (it kicks lavender's butt in this department).  To top it all off, rabbits can't stand it (although they might take a nap under it!).

So, my careless sage cutting scheme entailed simply shoving a 30cm sage branch into the ground.  The result was this:

 

Not one of the cuttings rooted.  Luckily,  I had so many cuttings that I also had planted some in pots with amended soil, et voilà!

Here you can see our lighter clay dirt layered with nutrient-rich potting soil.

 

Much better!