Rising up to 4' tall and 3' across, blue wild indigo is a robust, attractive plant with a commanding presence. The glaucus, bluish-green leaves add to its visual appeal. The flowers are blue to purple and resemble those of other members of the Pea family. They are borne on large terminal spikes that are up to 16" long. Flowers give way to attractive, 2.5" long, ebony colored seed pods that can be used in dried flower arrangements.
Easily grown in average or even poor soil and in part- to full sun. Baptisia australis is quite drought tolerant thanks to a deep taproot. After flowering, plants may flop if they are growing in overly rich soil or under too much shade. If this occurs, the stems can be cut back and they will produce a new flush of dense foliage that will remain attractive through fall. As the plant matures, it will form a woody based clump. The blooming period occurs in late spring to early summer and last several weeks.
The flowers are primarily pollinated by bumblebees, and the leaves feed several species of moths and butterflies during their larval stage. Rabbits and deer largely stay clear of the plants because of the mild toxicity of the foliage.
Space plants 2' to 3' on center.
Young plants will take 3 years to reach full size and blooming potential. Although it may be tempting to plant them closer together, mature plants hold a commanding presence and deserve their space to take full advantage of their rounded, symmetrical form. Furthermore, due to its taproot, wild blue indigo is not a good candidate for transplanting.
Taller companion plants include the following: grasses included in the Andropogon genus (bluestem) or their cultivars. Flowering herbaceous perennials (forbs) to consider include: Pycnanthemum muticum (clustered mountainmint), Oligoneuron rigidum (stiff goldenrod), Solidago speciosa (showy goldenrod), Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot), Veronicastrum virginicum (Culver's root), Rudbeckia triloba (browneyed Susan). Shorter companion plants, that allow Baptisia australis to rise above, include: Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed), Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem) or its cultivars. Good options for flowering herbaceous perennials (forbs) include: Rudbeckia fulgida (orange coneflower) or the compact, floriforous cultivar Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii 'American Gold Rush', Pycnanthemum flexuosum (Appalachian mountainmint), Liatris aspera (tall blazing star), and for a fall bloomer of comperable stature try one of the shorter, sun-loving Symphyotrichum spp. (asters) or cultivars.
The juice of the Baptisia australis as believed to makes a substitute for the true indigo dye, hence the common name wild blue indigo. However, the dye was of poor quality and the practise was quickly abandoned.
Baptisia australis was named The Perennial Plant Association's 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year™.
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Recorded County Distribution: USDA data.
AL, AR, CT, DC, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MO, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, TX |
Endangered | OH |
Special Concern | KY |
Threatened | IN, MD, NC |
Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain | FACU |
Eastern Mountains and Piedmont | FACU |
Great Plains | UPL |
Midwest | FACU |
Northcentral and Northeast | FACU |
MAP OF WETLAND DELINEATION REGIONS
Code |
Status |
Designation |
Comment |
OBL |
Obligate Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Almost always occur in wetlands |
FACW |
Facultative Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Usually occur in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands |
FAC |
Facultative |
Hydrophyte |
Occur in wetlands and non-wetlands |
FACU |
Facultative Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Usually occur in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands |
UPL |
Obligate Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Almost never occur in wetlands |
Kingdom | Plantae | Plants |
Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants |
Superdivision | Spermatophyta | Seed plants |
Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants |
Class | Magnoliopsida | Dicotyledons |
Subclass | Rosidae | |
Order | Fabales | |
Family | Fabaceae | Pea family |
Genus | Baptisia | wild indigo |
Species | Baptisia australis | blue wild indigo |
wild blue indigo, wild false indigo, blue false indigo, prairie blue indigo
Sizes info
Shipping is free on all plants orders!
Your plants will ship using each grower’s preferred method: FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, or Spee-Dee Ground (in select midwestern states). Our growers ship orders Monday through Wednesday. The farther your plants need to travel, the earlier in the week they will ship. The goal is to have all plants delivered by the end of the week.
Shipping plugs:
Plugs are shipped in full flats, sometimes also referred to as trays. Multiple flats can be shipped in a single box. The flats are wrapped in netting or craft paper to secure the plants, and spacers are used between flats to keep the plants from being crushed.
When you unpack your plugs, the plants will have been somewhat flattened by the netting or craft paper. They will straighten out within a couple of days. You may also gently “fluff” them a bit to speed up the process. In some cases, your plants might have been cut back before packing, if the grower deemed them to have become too tall for safe packaging. Don’t worry, though, these guys know what they’re doing and would not compromise the health of the plants. They’ll fill back in in no time.
After receiving your plants’ journey in a dark box, it will be important to acclimate them to sunlight again. Over a couple of days, you should gradually move them into their preferred light exposure, and water them as per their requirement.
Although we always recommend putting your plants in the ground as soon as possible, they can stay healthy in the flats for a considerable amount of time. The key is to respect their growing requirements: if the species requires full sun, do not store them in the shade. If it is best adapted to dry soil, do not over-water.
Planting plugs:
We consider plugs ready to ship when the plants’ roots have filled the entire liner cell and the plants can easily be pulled out. In some cases you will have to go about it gently, wiggling the plant by the crown, and possibly squeezing the bottom of the liner to compress the growing medium and release the roots. Other times, the plants will appear to be root bound. They are not in the traditional sense. The plants are healthy but they have used up all the growing medium available to them. Plugs are at an aggressive stage of growth. As soon as planted the roots will immediately expand into your native soil. They establish faster than plants in larger containers, because they don’t have the luxury of a lot of growing media that can inhibit the roots from venturing outside of their comfort zone.
We are not going to address area preparation because the process can be complex and is always site-specific. However, as a rule, we recommend disturbing the soil as little as possible, and we do not recommend amending the soil. If you chose the right plant for the right conditions they will thrive. Any disturbance and amendments will only encourage weeds to emerge that never had a chance to do so before.
Installing plugs cannot be easier: dig a hole large enough for the roots to fit snugly inside, then water them in to eliminate air gaps. We recommend using a soil knife, sometimes referred to as hori hori, or a drill-adapted auger if it’s a large installation. If you use an auger, you will need a powerful drill. Depending on the size of the project and the type of soil, the process can be beyond what an average drill will bear. Mulching is recommended after installation to help keep weeds down while the plants establish. Be sure to keep it away from the crown of the plants. For large projects, you may want to mulch the area before planting, rather than tiptoeing through it after the fact. As a side note: if you are installing plugs in the fall, you might want to plant them so that the crown is about ¾” lower than the surrounding soil. The winter’s freeze/thaw cycles can push plugs out if the roots did not have enough time to establish and anchor them in.