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I’m in the N.C. Mountains (zone 7) and Spent a few days this week cleaning leaves and weeds out of my raised beds, and adding in some “Kickin’ Chickin’” composted cow and chicken manure. I can’t plant anything till last frost date which is a week after Mother’s Day. A lot of perineals are coming up nicely and the Peonies along the outside edge of the garden fence have huge buds already. The roses from Jackson Perkins should be here any day…. They are going along the front side of the fence and a climbing one over the entrance arbor. I could not plant them last year because garden and fence was new and fence wood had to cure for several months so I could not paint it white till after growth died back late fall. I’m so excited to add the roses this spring.

QUESTIONs:
(1) Has anyone grown Pineapple Sage. Mine was planted last year, grew 3 feet high and full and lovely blooming all summer and fall. I cut it back for winter and the root system is huge and thick and and the 3 x 5 inches sticking above ground appears to be healthy. But unlike the other perineals there is no sign of new growth yet. Perhaps the new growth will be late spring when it gets much warmer? I’m hoping that is the case.

(2) My tomatoes did not do well last summer. Maybe I didn’t use the right variety. Anyone in zone 7 have a recommendation of a good variety to use? I want big red juicy ones.

Here’s your State Extension site, which should help you answer a lot of your gardening questions:

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/salvia-elegans/

Lucky you to have Pineapple Sage as a perennial! Up here, I just grow it as an annual - such a lovely fragrance! Reminds me of my trip to the Anza-Boreggo Desert State Park in southern CA. I was there in February when everything was in bloom. Sage bushes as big as trees and so many Hummingbirds that you had to practically swat them away like mosquitoes, LOL!

http://parks.ca.gov/?page_id=638

Best Tomatoes for Zone 7:

https://rockinwhomestead.com/tomato-guide-by-zone/

My personal recommendations, and ones I have grown myself in the past for big, red juicy ones are:

Grandma’s Pick (I always grow this one; am growing this year!)
Better Bush
Celebrity (We grew this one for market back in the day)
Jersey Devil
Brandywine (Cannot beat it for flavor!)
Cherokee Purple (Another flavor explosion!)
Mortgage Lifter (HUGE tomatoes)
Bonnie Best

On the tomatoes: Chances are better than not that you used a high nitrogen synthetic/chemical fertilizer like Miracle Grow, just a guess. These are commonly used, and yes they make things grow well. Annual flowers for example often go nuts (in a good way) if used correctly. However garden vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers etc. do not. They may grow all stems/vines etc. but hardly blossom.

When OTC chemical fertilizers are used these vegetables use all their growing power to grow the plant, not the fruit/blossom part. I recommend a good organic fertilizer like: This for example is loaded calcium/magnesium/good bacteria varieties and other nutrients on top of the other natural by-products you are using. These products give the plants what they need specifically to be prolific, especially low nitrogen. One inexpensive bag will last you a year or two, also they work over a period of weeks rather than a couple of days. Not sure in your instance but the sage varieties may be suffering from the same thing.

Also it should be noted to go online (I like rareseeds.com) and buy heirloom seeds. If you buy say typical big box tomatoes most or all will be hybrids - nothing wrong with this as they often offer disease resistance etc. Problem is they will cross breed so you never know what you're going to get the following year if you save seeds. With heirloom seeds they only produce seeds from their own variety so you'll only get seeds that are plant specific. I grow with about 8-10 varieties a year and they never change, must be a decade now as I quit counting the seasons. For full disclosure I work in a greenhouse and tell this to customers all day, most don't know the above comments!