Growing Pineapple Sage: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 20, 2026
Pineapple sage earns its space twice: the leaves smell of pineapple when you brush them, and the scarlet flowers arrive in late summer when most of the garden has stopped performing.
It is bigger than the herb-bed slot you were imagining
NC State Extension puts it at three to five feet tall and three to four feet wide. That is shrub scale, not a tidy herb square, and it is the single most common surprise with this plant. Give it about ten square feet and treat it as tall, which means the north edge or a corner rather than a slot among the basil.
The flowering is late on purpose
Blooms come in summer and fall, peaking late summer into early fall, and they are what the hummingbirds come for. Planting one at the end of a bed gives you something worth watching in September, which is more than most herbs manage.
Perennial in the south, annual everywhere else
It is hardy in zones 8 through 10, where it comes back each year. Colder than that it is a one-season plant, which is how most people grow it. Our calendar treats it as an annual across a wider range for that reason rather than restricting it to the zones where it overwinters.
It is normally bought as a start rather than grown from seed, since named plants are propagated from cuttings, so we have marked it transplant-only. Check a local nursery or garden centre; it is widely stocked in spring.
Source: NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, Salvia elegans.
Companion planting guide for Pineapple Sage · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 4-10. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 3-5 ft
Method: Buy as a start: Buy as a nursery start and transplant outside. It's slow or unreliable from seed, so most gardeners skip seed-starting it entirely.
When to plant pineapple sage, by zone
Every zone pineapple sage grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4a & 4b | Buy as a start | May 22–May 29 | Aug 20–Aug 27 |
| 5a & 5b | Buy as a start | May 17–May 24 | Aug 15–Aug 22 |
| 6a & 6b | Buy as a start | May 2–May 9 | Jul 31–Aug 7 |
| 7a & 7b | Buy as a start | Apr 17–Apr 24 | Jul 16–Jul 23 |
| 8a & 8b | Buy as a start | Apr 1–Apr 8 | Jun 30–Jul 7 |
| 9a & 9b | Buy as a start | Feb 22–Mar 1 | May 23–May 30 |
| 10a & 10b | Buy as a start | Feb 6–Feb 13 | May 7–May 14 |
Harvest dates are about 90 days after the sow or plant-out date.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Pineapple Sage plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: about 10 square feet per plant (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 3-5 ft.
Where to buy pineapple sage starts
Pineapple sage is almost always bought as a nursery start rather than seeded. Check a local nursery or garden center; we haven't vetted online start/plant suppliers yet.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing pineapple sage" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Pineapple Sage: A three to five foot Salvia that flowers scarlet in late summer and is one of the best hummingbird plants you can put in a vegetable bed.
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