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Caring for Baptisia australis – False Indigo
Plants

Baptisa - Growing Guide

Caring for Baptisia australis – False Indigo

This is an upright growing perennial plant originating from dry woodland and grasslands in eastern USA. It is an erect perennial with glaucous stems and palmate mid green leaves consisting of three ovate clover-like leaves. The plants die down completely in winter and the old shoots need to be cut off at ground level when they go dormant. Vigorous shoots emerge in early April which produce many racemes of dark blue pea or lupin like flowers often with a fleck of white at the centre.

We now offer some improved forms such as B. australis ‘Dutch Chocolate’ which has chocolate purple flowers with a yellow centre.

Baptisia are fully hardy and grow best in an open well drained sandy soil in full sun. They dislike clay soils and waterlogging. The clumps can be divided when dormant or the plentiful crop of seeds can be sown in containers when ripe. This plant is also versatile enough to be introduced into a wild garden or bank in the hope that it will spread and naturalise itself as it would in the wild.

As with any plant with blue flowers this is a popular and easy to grow herbaceous plant.