False Indigo

Growth habit

Herbaceous

Perennation

Long-lived polycarpic perennial

Location

Bioswale Garden, Zucker Shrub Collection

Source of plant

Garden Crossings, Sooner Plant Farm, North Creek Nurseries

Description

Twilite Prairieblues™ is a long-lived, easily grown, quickly maturing bicolor Baptisia, selected from a controlled cross of Baptisia (australis x sphaerocarpa). Its blooms are long-lasting, beginning in late May and continuing through the first weeks of June. The blue-green, trifoliate foliage stays spotless all season. Plants can reach 3 to 5 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide in three years and produce upward of 100 flowering racemes. The plant is hardy in USDA zones 4 through 9 and begins blooming in Northern Illinois (USDA Zone 5) in mid-May, with a heavy flush in early to mid-June. Its lupinelike flowers in a smokey violet purple, highlighted by a lemon-yellow keel are produced in erect racemes that extend beyond the foliage, creating an incredible floral display. In late season, the green inflated seedpods turn charcoal black. Twilite Prairieblues™ prefers well drained, dry to medium wet soils in full sun. It has exceptional tolerance to poor soils and drought. These long-lived plants should not be disturbed once established. Twilite Prairieblues™ is excellent as a specimen, at the back of a border, or planted in groups in a prairie or meadow settings.

USDA Hardiness Zone

4

Special characteristics

growth habit, flower color