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Baptisia

© Jojo Sigurgeirson

From the rich woods and alluvial thickets to riverbanks and gardens, False Indigo forms tall clumps of blue flowers, much like an overgrown lupine. The bright blue flowers are especially nice when combined with white or yellow flowering perennials.

Baptisia Growing Conditions

• Climate: USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 9
• Soil: Prefers a deep, well-drained neutral to slightly acid soil.
• Water: Moisture is important before and during blooming, but once that's done, they'll take some summer drought and come back next year.
• Exposure: Prefers lots of sun. Not for shade.
• Other: Plants have a very deep root system and dislike root disturbance, so leave them alone once they're planted. No division required!

Baptisia Facts

Baptisias are pea relatives, just like the lupin. In fact, they are so much like a lupin in form that many people replace their lupines with these, as they are in many cases much easier to grow. Slugs don't tend to like them as much either.

Baptisia australis is not from Australia. All Baptisias are native to North America.

False Indigo, or Baptisia australis are interesting plants almost all year. In early spring, grey-green shoots appear from the ground. Later, these extend to handsome foliage of blue-green leaves, each one a clover shape. In early-summer, blue to purple pea flowers rise on spikes to 4 feet tall. After the flowers come the stiking seed-pods, almost black and usually at right angles to the stem.

Perhaps one day there will be a dwarf version, but for now, leave these large plants near the back of the border with other tall plants. They look really swell with and are good companions to Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata). For a massed effect, space plants 3 feet apart using natural lines, not those delineated by a border or fenceline. The don't look good like soldiers all in a row.

A yellow flowered species of Baptisia, B. tinctoria grows well in the warm, sunny garden. It looks alot like broom.

Baptisia brachteata is a lovely perennial with creamy-yellow spikes of flowers, and grows to a tidy 2 to 3 feet tall. On the tall end of the Baptisia spectrum lies B. megacarpum, which means big seeds. This one has creay-white flower spikes to 5 feet tall, very nice downy leaves, and large pods bearing round seeds in fall. There are many other Baptisia species as well, but apart from the B. australe (the blue one), they are rare in the garden. In fact, some are quite rare in the wild as well.

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