Exemplary Blue False Indigo Plant
True indigo was expensive and Baptisia which made a similarly colored dye grew like a weed.
Blue false indigo plant. The planting palette includes herbaceous perennials chosen for their individual qualities. Baptisia australis commonly known as blue wild indigo or blue false indigo is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae legumes. Short spikes of indigo-blue pea-like flowers cover dense blue green foliage.
Blue False Indigo is a member of the pea legume family which means that it has the ability to fix nitrogen to the soil. Foliage is blue-green and growth habit is shrub-like. Use and Care Manual PDF.
After the first two seasons the blooms are increasingly showy as the plant matures. In its first few years this long-lived plant develops mostly below ground. Keep moist first year.
Baptisia or false indigo is one of those resilient native plants you can count on to bloom and thrive for decades. For 2010 this is. In addition to it being long lived baptisia also provides a long season of interest beginning in spring and lasting well into fall.
Dividing them will give you extra plants but it will take the plants longer to recover from the shock of being separated. 2x per week after. A very long-lived perennial.
False Indigo Flowers Members of the Fabaceae or pea family false indigo flowers distinctive pea-like blossoms also come in white Baptisia alba and yellow Baptisia tinctoria as well as the more widely known blue Baptisia australis. Full sun plants thrive in 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. In spring pollinators love its purple flowers and it is the host plant for many species of butterflies such as the Clouded Sulphur pictured above.