They get confused in every garden center. The table tells them apart in five lines.
Shot to one scale: bloom beside bloom, from our own library.
The verdicts, line by line
Every line below is a field of the open table, not an opinion.
In the vase
Neither carries enough published cut-flower data for an honest vase verdict, so this duel is settled in the garden.
In the garden
Both come back, but not everywhere: russian sage shrugs off zone 4 winters while lavender taps out below zone 5. On upkeep the table sides with russian sage: rated low maintenance against medium.
The full card
A line is marked only where one flower clearly leads. Equal or too-close values are left plain.
| Field | Lavender | Russian Sage |
|---|---|---|
| Fragrance | Sweetly aromatic (moderate) | Lightly aromatic foliage, not a floral scent |
| Light | Full sun, tolerates part shade | Full sun |
| Water | Dry to medium | Dry to medium |
| Hardiness zones | 5 to 9 | 4 to 9 |
| Bloom months | 3 months | 5 months |
| Deer (Rutgers) | Rarely damaged (Rutgers A) | Rarely damaged (Rutgers A) |
| Cats (ASPCA) | Toxic | Never evaluated |
We keep one table of 85 flowers, with 25 documented facts each, drawn from university and extension sources. Every ranking is a published formula worth 100 points; tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made it. A flower that does not fit a job is not scored lower: it is excluded, and the reason is named. Nothing here is sponsored, and no score can be bought. When the table changes, every score and stamp updates itself. The full method ↗
Read the full profile
Everything the table holds on each of them, in plain prose.