Common name:Purple Garden Sage
Botanical name:Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens'

This perennial sage has a mounding, spreading habit growing to about 1 to 2 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide. New foliage emerges purple, ages to grey-green, and is highly aromatic. Flowers are blue and appear in May and June. Purple garden sage is semi-evergreen to evergreen. The foliage and flowers are edible. Also attractive to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

Common name:Russian Sage
Botanical name:Perovskia atriplicifolia

Russian sage may be the ubiquitous low-water garden plant. With its grey green, aromatic foliage, and azure blue spires, it provides a long-lasting show in hot, dry gardens. It grows to 3 to 5 feet tall, and nearly as wide. It is a woody perennial and forms a very hard trunk over time. It is both airy and substantial, and partners well with herbaceous perennials, woody shrubs, or ornamental grasses. It also would grow well against a south or west facing wall or fence.

Common name:Smoketree
Botanical name:Cotinus coggygria

Smoketree is a deciduous shrub with a multi-stemmed, upright habit, growing about 10 to 15 feet tall and wide. Can be pruned to be a small tree. Its common name is not from the tiny, insignificant, yellowish spring flowers, but from the billowy hairs (attached to elongated stalks on the spent flower clusters) which turn a smokey pink to purplish pink in summer, covering the tree with fluffy, hazy, smoke-like puffs. Bluish-green leaves are rounded. Several attractive purple-leaved cultivars of this species are available and are generally more popular landscape plants than the species. Fall color is highly variable, but at its best produces very attractive shades of yellow, orange, red and purplish-red.

Common name:Gaura
Botanical name:Gaura lindheimeri

Gaura is a lovely addition to a perennial border, with its fine green foliage and delicate white to pink flowers. The plant has an open vase shape, and grows about 36 inches tall and 24 to 36 inches wide. Leaves are fine, green, and sometimes spotted with maroon. Flowers are arrayed on long stems and are reminiscent of butterflies; the blooms open from the bottom of the stems towards the top, over a long season of bloom (early summer to fall). Its airy quality creates movement in the garden. Combines well with other perennials and ornamental grasses. A number of named cultivars are now available, some with more distinctively pink flowers or variegated foliage.

Common name:Elijah Blue Fescue
Botanical name:Festuca cinerea 'Elijah Blue'

The icy-blue coloration of this little grass makes it a stand-out in the garden. Its evergreen, clumping habit make it well suited for edging borders, mass planting, or ground cover. Grows in full sun to part shade. Generally under 12 inches, even in flower. Soft tufts of greenish white flowers emerge in early summer and turn tawny by summers end. Excellent for parkstrips.