How about this for a new sage? Yes, a brand new variegated culinary sage. Doesn’t it look great? It's called 'La Crema'.

Now, I have to say, before you get too excited – it’s only just becoming available in the US in independent garden centers through the Hort Couture brand. And it's not yet available in Britain -  I'll let you know when it is.

But yesterday we received three small plants to try, to assess how good it really is. So the picture is of a little plant just 3in/7.5cm high. But it looks very promising, doesn’t it? It’s a variegated sport of the broad-leaved ‘Berggarten’ and with relatively few forms of the culinary sage available, this looks as if it has a bright future - IF it performs well in the garden. Of course, that all depends on how it looks this summer, how well it comes back after our winter snows here in Pennsylvania, and then how well it performs next year. And will it revert to its non-variegated parent?

I'm hoping it does well, as an enthusiast for colorful forms of culinary plants - after all, I wrote a book on the subject - this is precisely the sort of plant I like to see. If you're growing it, email me later in the year and tell me how it performs for you.