Baptisia has arrived. Anyone who took the recent Garden Tour in my town saw at least one baptisia in each of the five private gardens, including mine. They are everywhere–in catalogs, garden centers and even big box stores. Sometimes they stand alone; other times, they are positioned near their cousins, the difficult but sought after lupines. Instant gratification seekers pluck the lupines off the shelves. Experienced gardeners know that baptisia is much less likely to disappoint them.
Anyone who has ever grown peas, beans or other members of the legume or Leguminosae family will recognize baptisia’s characteristic papilionaceous or butterfly-like flowers. The little “butterflies” perch atop three-foot stems, clustered in spikes or racemes that wave in the breeze. Each flower spike generally has ten or more individual blossoms. Depending on the species, cultivar or hybrid, the flowers can be white, blue, blue-purple, yellow or bi-colored. Dark green leaflets alternate on the stems in groups of three. A happy baptisia will increase in size over the years, forming a healthy clump with a multitude of stalks. It is a good idea to prepare for that eventuality and leave a little breathing room around the plant when you install it.
Baptisia is sometimes known as “false indigo,” because of its resemblance to related plants in the genus Indigofera. These true indigos have long been dyers’ favorites, producing a strong blue color in fabrics. Plantsman and nursery owner Tony Avent prefers to call baptisia “redneck lupine.” Avent, who would happily identify himself as a redneck horticulturist, bestowed the nickname because many species in the genus are native to parts of the south and make excellent stand-ins for lupine, which dislikes southern heat and humidity.
Horticultural fashion is a fickle thing, but the spotlight has been on baptisia over the past decade. Since the plant is tough, drought-resistant and unpalatable to wildlife, breeders have worked hard to create colorful new hybrids for the commercial market. In 1996, the late Dr. Rob Gardener, of the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, introduced ‘Purple Smoke’. He followed that up in 2002 with the pale yellow ‘Carolina Moonlight’. These are still available through catalog merchants. More recently, a group of Midwestern plant organizations including the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Morton Arboretum and the Ornamental Grower’s Association of Northern Illinois, formed “Chicagoland Grows,” a trademarked plant introduction and marketing initiative. Among the plants introduced by this group are a number of beautiful baptisia. Notable among them are plants in the Prairieblues Series, bred by Dr. James Ault of the Chicago Botanic Garden. These include dark blue ‘Midnight’; lighter blue ‘Starlite’; the purple/yellow bi-colored ‘Twilite’ and the yellow ‘Solar Flare’. The Prairieblues plants are hybrids of two baptisia species, the blue-flowered Baptisia australis and Baptisia sphaerocarpa. Other notable Chicagoland Grows introductions include ‘Lavender Rose’, which is reddish purple and ‘Lunar Eclipse’, a blue and white bi-color.
For those who like plants in the currently chic chocolate-brown range, Minnesota breeder Hans Hansen has produced hybrids including ‘Chocolate Chip’ and ‘Dutch Chocolate’. Hansen’s ‘Blueberry Sundae’ is a purple-blue variety.
If you decide to combine common sense with a bow to horticultural fashion and grow false indigo in your garden, remember to treat it more like a shrub than a perennial. Poor soil is no problem, but give the plants enough room at the outset, as they dislike being disturbed after they are established. Install them in the middle to back of the border to show off their statuesque beauty to best advantage. Once the mid-spring bloom period is over, cut back the spent flower spikes, but otherwise leave the plant alone until late fall. The black seedpods and the pretty foliage make it worthwhile to wait until October or so to cut the stalks back to four to six inches above the ground.
You may not be the only gardener in your neighborhood to grow baptisia, but if you choose one of the bi-colors or other flashy introductions, you can still stand out from the common suburban herd. Find a good baptisia selection at Plant Delights Nursery, 9241 Sauls Road, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27603; (919) 772-4794; www.plantdelights.com. For a paper catalog, send ten first class stamps or a box of chocolates. For the Prairieblues Series, go to Hallson Gardens, PO Box 220, Brooklyn, MI 49230, (866) 568-1474, www.perennialnursery.com. N