False Indigo (Blue False Indigo, Wild Indigo)
Baptisia australis. FABACEAE (LEGUMINOSAE).
Planting and Growing False Indigo
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow false indigo in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and root structure of false indigo
- Plant hardiness and growing conditions for false indigo
- Season of bloom and planting time for false indigo
- When, how deep, and where to plant false indigo
- How to plant false indigo
- Watering, fertilizing, care, and pests or diseases of false indigo
- Landscape and container uses of false indigo
- Comments about false indigo and its features
Growing False Indigo
Several cultivars of upright, clump-forming, deciduous perennial herbs, 2–6 ft. (60–180 cm) tall. Matte, blue green, oval leaves, 2–1/2-in. (63-mm) long, in 3-leaflet groups.
White false indigo, Baptisia alba; prairie false indigo, Baptisia leucantha; and wild indigo, Baptisia tinctoria, are closely related species with similar care needs.
Planting and Care Guide
Blooms
Many blue, pealike flowers, to 1 in. (25 mm) wide, in long terminal racemes, in early summer, form beanlike pods bearing seed, in autumn.
Best Climates
Hardy. Zones 3–9.
Soil Type and Fertility
Damp to dry, well-drained loam. Fertility: Average–low. 6.5–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Spring, zones 3–7; autumn, zones 8–9, in full or filtered sun to partial shade, 2–3 ft. (60–90 cm) apart.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep damp until established; water when soil surface dries. Drought tolerant thereafter. Avoid fertilizing. Stake in windy areas. Propagate by division, seed.
About This Plant
Good choice for backgrounds, borders, massed plantings, screens in cottage, meadow gardens. Good for cutting. Deer, pest, and disease resistant.