Is there a good small plant that can stand in for sagebrush in garden scale?

Either bush or wild thyme might work for you. Don’t know if it could take the humidity of Oregon too well… & it might help to confine it to small pots if it gets larger than you want. It can definitely be kept fairly small by trimming. Google for some pix.

John, thanks. Our summers here in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon are often in 80s-90s low 100s with very low humidity. It’s more humid up north toward Portland and of course on the coast. It’s the winters that are so wet (we have five inches of snow today).

Try to find some young plants in the desert and transplant them. (Might be illegal-so keep an eye pealed:) :))
It is a very slow growing plant.
You could maybe prune it back a little.

Oh wait: you want a mini scaled sagebrush, right. Maybe 2" high.
Forget everything about what I wrote above.

Bill Powell said:
John, thanks. Our summers here in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon are often in 80s-90s low 100s with very low humidity. It's more humid up north toward Portland and of course on the coast. It's the winters that are so wet (we have five inches of snow today).

Thyme should do great there. There are many varieties, including creeping thymes that make good ground cover. All the thymes are happy if they can keep their feet dry most of the time, & they like poor soil. Some of the more upright bush thymes make good miniature trees as well. Good luck with whatever decisions you eventually make.

Isn’t it amazing what you can find on the internet if you spend two minutes looking? Dwarf Sagebrush. It is even native to Eastern Oregon/Southern Oregon.

(http://projects.offthewallmedia.com/sevenoaks/files/2011/01/art-arb.jpg)

Dwarf Sagebrush French Tarragon has been described as a good look alike.

(http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/images/artdracanculuspot1.jpg)

French Tarragon

I couldn’t be expected to know about that, Steve.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/choochoo_chaboogie/_forumfiles/range.jpg)

See? It doesn’t grow here. :lol:

Steve: I can even smell it! Love sage! Trouble with tarragon is I am always wanting some to go with the butter, white wine and dover sole …

John Le Forestier said:
I couldn’t be expected to know about that, Steve.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/choochoo_chaboogie/_forumfiles/range.jpg)

See? It doesn’t grow here. :lol:

It has the good sense to stop at the 49th parallel.

Steve,
They are a wholesaler with a minimum $200.00 order.
If it’s native, go find some.

Bill Powell said:
Is there a good small plant that can stand in for sagebrush in garden scale?

Not if you want it actually to scale.

In the desert areas I’m familiar with, sagebrush can be anywhere from ankle-high, to knee-high. A two-foot tall shrub scales out to an inch tall in 1/24th scale; in 1/20th scale it’s more like 1 1/4". No way you’re going to find a living plant that small, that comes anywhere close to looking like a full size sagebrush.

Even if you were going for a generic chaparral up to 4 feet tall, that’s still only a couple of inches. Living plants that size just don’t have the right structure.

Normally I’d recommend making sagebrush out of a certain type of plastic flower from Michael’s craft store, which is what I do. Unfortunately those particular flowers are not available right now. I’m hoping they’ll get some more in when they switch to their “summer” varieties.