Each spring I try to plant a few things I’ve never grown before. That’s in addition to the standard herbs and vegetables like conventional sage, basil, thyme, coriander, rosemary, oregano, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, zucchinis, cucumbers, peas and string beans.
This year I purchased spontaneously a pineapple sage seedling from the plant nursery. It’s different from a conventional sage plant in that the leaves are pointy versus round, they smell like pineapple, and the plant grows relatively fast in a v shape. According to Wikipedia, pineapple sage is used extensively in Mexican traditional medicine, especially for the treatment of anxiety, and also for lowering of blood pressure.
But unlike most of my other herbs, I didn’t find any practical use for it. (I’m not depressed and I don’t have hypertension.) It was yet another plant to care for, and it was not an alternative to conventional sage for cooking.
Then, in early October, it surprised me with an extreme growth spurt, followed by brilliant red flowers. It’s nearly November and the flowers are thriving. Apparently, hummingbirds love pineapple sage flowers, and capitalize on them for refueling, prior to the migration south. Hummingbirds are magical creatures that visit our back yard occasionally; I’ve been on the lookout though haven’t seen any yet.
Pineapple sage is a boring plant in the spring and summer, but it most certainly livens up our deck’s herb container garden in the fall. Therefore, pineapple sage will have to stay.