This gorgeous plant will bring butterflies, hummingbirds to your garden

Gray Sage

Salvia leucophylla

Planting areas: Zones 7 to 10

Size: 3 to 6 foot tall, 2 feet wide

Bloom season: May to July

Exposure: Sun

Pruning needs: None

Water needs: Low once established

Snapshot: This evergreen shrub has attractive, fragrant gray foliage and abundant purple flowers that are visited by bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. Quail love its seeds.

Grey sage is native from Santa Maria to Baja California in northern Mexico.

A good fit for slopes and butterfly gardens, this tough plant tolerates some frost and most soils and drinks little to no water. It will easily self-root from branches, making it ideal for do-it-yourself propagation.

It thrives in heavy soil and manages in sandy soil.

Got a gardening question?

In San Luis Obispo, call 805-781-5939; Arroyo Grande, 805-473-7190, and Templeton, 805-434-4105. Visit us at http://ucanr.edu/sites/mgslo or email us at anrmgslo@ucanr.edu. Follow us on Instagram at slo_mgs and like us on Facebook. Informative garden workshops are held the third Saturday of every month at 2156 Sierra Way in San Luis Obispo. To request a tour of the garden, call 805-781-5939.

This story was originally published June 6, 2018 at 11:28 AM with the headline "This gorgeous plant will bring butterflies, hummingbirds to your garden."