Baptisia australis

var. minor

DWARF BLUE INDIGO

Baptisia australis var minor
DWARF BLUE INDIGO

Baptisia australis var. minor gives spectacular, glowing colour, but on a more compact and shorter bush than it’s taller relatives.
And even better – the Dwarf Blue Indigo has even larger flowers, but on a smaller bush.

Intensely rich, deep, vivid blue pea blooms

Otherwise Baptisia australis var. minor has the same intensely rich, deep, vivid blue pea blooms in summer.
And cut stems make wonderful floral arrangements in a vase.

Handsome foliage

While the same blue-grey foliage makes such a lovely foil for it’s own vivid flowers as well as the colours of other neighbouring blooms.
A thicket of grey-green cloaked stems make a rounded bush. That you just cant miss because of the beautiful flower and foliage colours.

Tough & hardy perennial

Plant in a sunny position.
Baptisia australis var. minor is easy to grow, as it is a tough, hardy, perennial.

Good for bees & birds / bad for rabbits & deer

And gardeners all bless Baptisia.
Because rabbits find it unattractive and a last resort to eat.
While deer also find it unpalatable.

However our little flying friends the bees, pollinators and native honey-eating birds, just adore it and feast on the nectar. Bees love blue in the garden and so do I.

Good for gardeners with rationed water

So it is drought resistant once established, and will continue to give you that burst of marvellous deep blue colour year after year.
And it is considered an excellent water saving choice for gardeners with rationed water supply.

Frost hardy & easy

Happily it is also very frost hardy.

30-60cm. High in flower x 30-60cm. Wide approx, making a rounded thicket of flowering stems.

Baptisia australis is in no way invasive, as it has no runners.
But your clump will get fatter, denser and even more impressive each year.

SEED SOWING ADVICE:

Sow any time indoors in punnets / or scatter directly in garden in autumn, winter or early spring.

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. So roughing up the coating with a little rubbing speeds up germination.

Then soak seeds in warm water in a glass – leave for 24 hours to soften the hard outer coating.
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.

Now sow the seeds on the surface of good quality seed raising mix.
And cover seeds with mix / vermiculate / fine grit to a depth the same as the diameter of the seeds – approx. 5mm.

Then place the moist, sown punnet in a well-lit position. (But not in direct sunlight).

Continue to keep the punnet moist.

Temperatures of 20-23C approx. are best for optimum and rapid germination.

Seedlings emerge in approx. 14-30 days.

Encouraging your seeds

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.
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).

After 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.

Then place it back into the well-lit position for germination.
Keep moist, at temperatures of approx. 20-23C.

SEED COUNT: 5 seeds per pack approx.
(These seeds are rarely available and we have limited supply).

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