Steve - Get Russian Sage. You will be so glad you did. I bought 3 1gal RS's from HD last year... and promptly did NOT plant them. For like a month. And didn't water them in the pots. So they were pretty pretty PRETTY pathetic & dried OUT. Like sage that you'd fine in your cupboard, not a pretty plant to plant. So, I decided that, if I'm gonna plant 'em, I'd better plant 'em. Where I wanted to put them was on the west side of my house in the front yard on the west side of my driveway where my irises sit in a rockbed with some yarrow. So I move some rock away and proceed to try & dig holes. Note the magic word: TRY. I couldn't break even 3" down, the dirt was so hard. I ended up getting my hose & sitting it on the three spots for about 15 minutes each to scratch deep enough (ie: 8") to put the RS's. I then put the nasty soil right back and covered them with rock again. I watered.. oh.. 3? times last year.
This spring, I went over & hand-pruned the plants down to about 2" tall, figuring that they were all dead. Oh well, I have receipts. I haven't even watered over there, I don't water that side. And all 3 not only survived my extreme neglect/attempted plant-murder, but they're already about 1" tall. And they'll bloom for me this year. They'll probably get.. oh.. 2-3ft tall, probably 3-3.5 ft wide and will have purple flowers that last for EVER.
Get Russian Sage. You will NOT be sorry.
:( :(. I should take pictures of my yard so everyone can see why I'm going insane from jealousy.
