I haven't been to that garden in awhile, but I've been biking the southern side of Palos Verdes (hoping & failing to see whales from the cliffsides), where the mellifera and leucophylla are healthier and blooming more heavily than I've seen in a long time and the smell is intoxicating when it's warm. Maybe I'll try and get some pics soon.

Here's the sages in the wildscaped lands that separate the mansions from the Pacific on on Palos Verdes peninsula's southern cliffs. S. leucophylla blooming like crazy, mellifera in the back about to do the same. I'm not sure I captured the vast field of these two natives mixed with artemesias, chamise, monkeyflowers and other natives & xerics.

and not to be cruel to you folks in the grip of winter, but here you can see the calcium-heavy alkaline soils those two sages thrive in and their ability to tolerate all the salt the coastal fog deposits on this bluff (Catalina island in the background).

Thanks for the great pix, kelpermaid. I have an S. leucophylla on my native-plant hill, but I haven't seen it in nature yet. It doesn't occur in our area (Temecula).

great shots dicot...it's photos like these that make inlanders yearn for coastal visits...cruel?..maybe, but ever so inspiring! As referenced by kelpermaid re smell-o-vision, maybe somebody will sometime invent a scratch-n-sniff monitor screen...(plants only please) These photos would produce really good aroma.

Sorry -- I credited the wrong person for the excellent photos. Dicot, I salute you.