Other Names:  Button Sage, Wild Sage, White Lantana

Description:

An upright, heavily branched woody shrub, with rough, oval shaped dark green foliage; presents terminal clusters of small, creamy-white flowers from spring to fall; drought tolerant and easy to grow; prune regularly to maintain dense compact form

Ornamental Features

Buttonsage features showy cymes of fragrant white flowers with buttery yellow eyes at the ends of the branches from early spring to late fall. It has dark green evergreen foliage which emerges chartreuse in spring. The serrated oval leaves remain dark green throughout the winter. The fruits are showy purple drupes with pink overtones, which are displayed from mid summer to mid winter.

Landscape Attributes

Buttonsage is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a more or less rounded form. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting bees, butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Buttonsage is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Hedges/Screening
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Buttonsage will grow to be about 5 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 5 feet. It has a low canopy, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a fast rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 20 years. This is a self-pollinating variety, so it doesn't require a second plant nearby to set fruit.

This shrub should only be grown in full sunlight. It is very adaptable to both dry and moist growing conditions, but will not tolerate any standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for xeriscaping or the moisture-conserving landscape. To help this plant achive its best flowering performance, periodically apply a flower-boosting fertilizer from early spring through into the active growing season. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in sandy soils, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This species is native to parts of North America, and parts of it are known to be toxic to humans and animals, so care should be exercised in planting it around children and pets. It can be propagated by cuttings.

Buttonsage makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its height, it is often used as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.