Perennials: Russian sage, 1 by sharvis

sharvis wrote:
Hey all you Russian Sage growers! Maybe you can help me out. When we moved to this house last fall there were two bushes growing in a bed very near one another. They look very much alike, and both appear to be some sort of Salvia. One, however, has toothed leaves, very long and thin, and on the other the leaves are smooth. They are from 3 to maybe 5 1/2 feet tall, both bloom in the late summer or early fall with long purplish panicles. Both are deciduous. I've posted these pictures on the ID forum and so far one response is that one of the bushes appears to be Perovskia, while the other looks like Mexican Bush Sage. I looked on the PDB and it certainly does resemble the Salvia leucantha. The only problem there is that they are supposedly only hardy to zone 8 and we are in zone 6 (closed to Z5 much of the time). While the other may be Russian Sage, it doesn't look to me much like the pictures on the PDB and I've always read that the leaves when crushed are very fragrant, like most of the other sages. Can you all take a peek at these pictures and tell me what you think?