Texas Sage (Leucophyllum) flowers

I just wanted to share the beautiful but short-lived flowers on this pre-bonsai TX Sage.

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I have a sage. Thought it was Texas Sage. Canā€™t be though. My flowers look different. Great little shrubs/trees though. I have them in my landscape.

The sage that grows on the east coast is normally Salvia, not Leucophyllum.

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Took another look at mine. Turns out that it is a Texas Sage. Mine got hit hard by aphids this year.

Ah ha! That definitely looks the same. There are a variety of common names for quite a few species within the genus that all get called something along the lines of Desert / Texas / Mexican sage.

I havent had aphid problems with mine, but then again I have crepe myrtles and those things are aphid magnets. Iā€™ve had several rounds with aphids this year and all of them have been on one or more crepe myrtles.

Those things get my CM as well. Iā€™ve had a lot of luck with a product called Drench, but itā€™s a synthetic. Some ppl arenā€™t down with that. Iā€™m going to treat my tropicals with it soon in prep for bringing them indoors. The other sage that I have in the ground didnā€™t get touched by aphids though and itā€™s doing well.

Next year Iā€™m going to see if there are any aphid host plants I can put into the ground around my yard. The idea is to attract them to a plant that you ā€œdonā€™t care aboutā€ in an effort to keep them away from he plants you donā€™t want them on.

Oh, thanks for the tips on the grow tent btw. After I put the kit together in my Amazon cart my wife changed her mind lol. :money_with_wings::money_with_wings::money_with_wings: Going to just get some wire shelving and put it in front of a south facing window. Did something similar last year, but this will be a lot less ghetto. :laughing:

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