Back in the spring, I mentioned what looked to be one of the highlight new plants of the season, the variegated culinary sage Salvia officinalis La Crema™ (‘Berggbright’). At the time, all we had were three young plants, from the US Culinary Couture™ brand from Hort Couture™, just being planted out.

Well, it’s now September – how are they doing?

Two of the plants have done well, one in a container with some calibrachoas, which are doing rather less well, and the other in the border – both in the sun for most of the day. They’ve made plants as wide, perhaps a little wider, than they are tall and their coloring is delightful and consistent.

And the foliage is not too variegated, enough to create an attractive color pattern, but not so heavy as to overdominate the plant and weaken its growth. And no reversion so far. The third plant faded away through no fault of its own, I think it just became overshadowed by its all-too-luxuriant neighbors.

Just to remind you, this is a new variegated form of the well known, broad-leaved sage ‘Berggarten’. It turned up in a garden in Virginia in 2007 and has been in US retail stores this year sold under the trademarked name La Crema™. Its cultivar name in ‘Berggbright’. Unusually, the plant is not protected so anyone can sell it as ‘Berggbright’. As far as I know no one in Britain or the rest of Europe has it yet – a great opportunity for someone.

Now, let's see how it survives the winter...