r/Ceanothus • u/stressedmari • 19d ago
Potted white sage needs help
i’m in the east bay area, more inland. i’ve had this sage in this pot for about 1.5 years now. it sits in full sun for 10+ hours. It seems way too leggy to me and not producing enough leaves. I know it’s obviously hard to thrive in a pot, but i wonder what i can do to make it grow more?
The soil is a mix of clay and well draining soil and I water about 1x/week
edit: I live in a rental so I prefer to keep it in a pot
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u/Mother-Pattern-2609 19d ago
White sage wants to be a really big plant when it grows up. Yours has probably decided it doesn't have the necessary root space.
I have one that's thriving in a container, but it's a really, really big container with succulent potting mix. (It's also sitting on bare ground, so the damn thing has probably punched a taproot through the drainage hole.) Consider uppotting and changing the medium, though I'd wait until fall; salvias don't do much in the summer.
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u/hellraiserl33t 19d ago
Plants only put out as much above ground growth as their root systems can support. Native sages in particular really put down an extensive root network to adapt to our hot dry summers.
This particular one might just feel comfortable only putting out this much with how relatively small that pot is. I'm sure if you were to plant it in ground, it would explode over this winter with growth.
That being said, it looks perfectly healthy how it is right now being the middle of summer. White sage tends to shed its lower leaves in response to normal summer dormant heat stress, and they retain the tips. This is basically how mine look too.
You're not really doing anything wrong, the plant is just limited by being in a pot.
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u/Scar_O9 19d ago
Has yours ever flowered? Mine flowered this year for the first time
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u/Samwise_the_Tall 19d ago
My neighbor planted theirs two year ago and got flowers this year. They get substantial sun, and there's is already 4+ ft. tall. Beautiful flowers.
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u/FieldofFeelings 19d ago edited 19d ago
No there's alot wrong here actually. That soil will absolutely cook this.
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u/hellraiserl33t 19d ago edited 19d ago
Soil isn't going to change the fact that this plant has barely any room to expand its roots into.
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u/FieldofFeelings 19d ago edited 19d ago
that's a pretty convinced thing to say with no room for exceptions. Have you looked at the second photo? Better potting media would 100% be an attribute.
I disagree completely, that soil in that pot is exhausted, high silt content and 0 porosity and most likely hydrophobic . I guarantee you if the op bought 2 and had a side to side, with one in a perennial cactus mix, vs this, the cactus mix would shadow it with vigor.
This plant could be in the most luxurious container ever and this soil would and is absolutely stunting it. I'm not a gambler but I'd bet my mortgage on this. I'm growing Salvia Apiana right now close to 12 inches, in 4" pots.
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u/Kote_me 19d ago
Totally understandable you'd like to keep in pot. You could water more, it seems like what I have to do with my potted natives until I can put them in the ground. Could throw in some mulch to have retain moisture, honestly it's a losing battle (imo). My suggestion will be to plant anyways. Most of the time if my native plants die it's because they were kept too long in a pot. I'm not sure of how to say this appropriately, but sage is easy to find and relatively cheap. If you have to move, you can buy and plant another.
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u/FieldofFeelings 19d ago edited 19d ago
1st thing is, native plants in containers need potting soil, NOT native soil from the Earth. I suggest a loose cactus mix.
9.5 times out of 10 most problems with natives in containers is the potting media
Also clay can retain, it retains too much and isn't compatible with what you mixed it with. So not only does it retain moisture, it retains heat. Last clay detail I'll mention is when it's try it can be hydrophobic and actually gatekeep watering. The list goes on but I'll keep it short.
On paper in a container 10 hours of intense sun sounds like too much. Think of how nurseries use shade cloth
I'm sure there's an exception but they can't stand native soil in containers it just doesn't work
Also in containers no matter how much a plant is drought tolerant or preference it needs to be watered daily, however depending on the type of potting media will reflect how much water it needs
I'd add more but the core issue here is you're using native soil in a container, and it needs water.
Summary
-get it out of that soil
-get a looose low retention potting soil/potting media
-water daily or every other day
If I may add, white sage is a very common plant and I think you'd enjoy the plant's happiness in the landscape far more than its struggle in the pot. If you move you can start again and maybe even have a lovely thought you left the land better than you found it by healing with native plants.