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Blue false indigo baptisia australis8/3/2023 Using False Indigo in the LandscapeĪs a landscape plant, False Indigo is versatile and colorful. It spreads readily in a variety of prairie soils, creating a haven for these pollinators and other wildlife. While the plant often doesn’t bloom until it reaches three years of age, mature plants produce an enormous amount of blue flowers that provide an excellent source of nectar and pollen for native bees and butterflies.įalse Indigo is also a host plant for the larval Frosted Elfin, Wild Indigo Duskywing, Clouded Sulphur, Eastern Tailed-Blue, Orange Sulphur, and Hoary Edge butterflies. In the wild, False Indigo is a tall, dense perennial that grows in a shrub-like form, making for excellent wildlife habitat. However, while no longer valuable for the textile industry, False Indigo still plays a crucial role as part of our North American ecosystem. While we know it now as False Indigo, as opposed to true Indigo ( Indigofera tinctoria ), both plants didn’t exist in the same regions until traders began importing true Indigo into the United States in the mid-1700s.Īs soon as Indigo quickly became a valued cash crop for its purposes as a dye, the need for False Indigo subsided. The rare color and beauty of the plant made it of special value, though extracting the pigment from the plant was no easy task! ![]() While indigo-dyed blue jeans rose into fashion in the late 1800s, early American settlers-and Native Americans before them-used False Indigo as a dye to achieve blue coloring for both garments and artwork. ![]() Fascinatingly, the rare color of False Indigo is exactly the reason it has played a very interesting role in American history! Historical Uses of False Indigo Even among designer hybrids, blue is an uncommon color to find, and many gardeners covet this rare color to add to their landscapes. 20-23C.True blue is rarely found in the plant world, but False Indigo ( Baptisia australis ) is about as close as it gets! This native flowering perennial is a member of the pea family, with pea-like flowers that bloom in shades of white, yellow, and-of course-blue. Then place it back into the well-lit position for germination. This will break the seed’s natural dormancy (The seeds will think they have had a winter, and now it is spring and time to germinate).Īfter the 6 weeks chilling of “pretend winter” in the fridge, remove the punnet, unwrap, make sure it is moist by soaking in a water bath. However if your seeds are shy to germinate after 30 days –then cling wrap moist, sown punnet & place in fridge (not freezer) for 6 weeks. are best for optimum and rapid germination. Then place the moist, sown punnet in a well-lit position. Now sow the seeds on the surface of good quality seed raising mix.Īnd cover seeds with mix / vermiculate / fine grit to a depth the same as the diameter of the seeds – approx. So any seeds that float should be soaked for another 24 hours in a fresh batch warm water, but seeds that have settled on the bottom of the glass are softened and ready to sow. Then soak seeds in warm water in a glass – leave for 24 hours to soften the hard outer coating. So roughing up the coating with a little rubbing speeds up germination. INDOORS: First scarify seeds by gently rubbing between sheets of fine sandpaper, as these seeds have a very hard coating, making it difficult for moisture to penetrate and commence germination. Sow any time indoors in punnets / or scatter directly in garden in autumn, winter or early spring. Wide approx, making a rounded thicket of flowering stems.īaptisia australis is in no way invasive, as it has no runners.īut your clump will get fatter, denser and even more impressive each year. With an even thicker clump of spires.Īnd it is considered an excellent water saving choice for gardeners with rationed water supply. So Baptisia australis is drought resistant once established, and will continue to give you that burst of marvellous deep blue colour year after year. Bees love blue in the garden and so do I. However our little flying friends the bees, pollinators and native honey-eating birds, just adore it and feast on the nectar. Good for bees & birds / bad for rabbits & deerīecause rabbits find it unattractive and a last resort to eat. Tough & hardy perennialīaptisia australis is easy to grow, as it is a tough, hardy, perennial. That you just cant miss because of the beautiful flower and foliage colours. While blue-grey foliage makes such a lovely foil for it’s own vivid flowers as well as the colours of other neighbouring blooms.Ī thicket of grey-green cloaked stems make a rounded bush. Spires of intensely rich, deep, vivid blue pea blooms in summer.Īnd cut stems make wonderful floral arrangements in a vase. Intensely rich, deep, vivid blue pea blooms ![]() Baptisia australis gives spectacular, glowing colour, of an intensity and purity that is rarely found in the garden.
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