Cait's Garden

I’ve been a bit remiss on this blog. Summer happens so quickly that this plant’s flowers have been and gone in my yard already. Depending on the weather, this plant will bloom for two to three weeks in late May/early June. It is “Baptisia Australis” otherwise known as Wild or False Indigo. When I purchased this clump shown in the photo, it was in the form of three very tiny seedlings from a mail-order nursery. At that time, about 5 years ago, this plant was hard to find in your local nursery. Today, you’ll see it everywhere, and in more colors, too. (I like the classic indigo color, myself.) My seedlings took three full years to grow to anything worth noting. Then, they really took off…to 3 feet tall and wide! Now you can thankfully buy a much larger plant in the nursery and spare yourself the wait for it to grow.

This plant is a native prairie plant and thus is incredibly strong and resilient to all water conditions. The foliage stays beautiful and upright all season, and in the fall, these really interesting black seedpods form which rattle in the wind. All in all, worth having in the garden, despite the short bloom time. But put it in the back of your beds and give it some room!