White Wild Indigo
Baptisia alba
Clean white pea-flower spikes in late spring over blue-green foliage that stays handsome all season. Charcoal-black pods rattle into winter.
Typically 1 pint–1 gal · $9–$30 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Sep 248 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Sep 258 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Sep 268 AM – 2 PM
White spring spikes, architectural black seed pods, nitrogen fixing, and a decades-long lifespan that gets better every year.
White wild indigo stands apart from its better-known blue cousin with clean, upright spikes of white pea-flowers in late spring and early summer. The blooms rise above blue-green trifoliate foliage that stays handsome and structural all season -- this is a perennial with presence year-round, not just when it blooms. The inflated seed pods that follow are charcoal-black and dramatic, rattling with seeds through fall and winter. As a legume, it fixes nitrogen in the soil and feeds the ecology around it without any help. It's the host plant for several specialist hairstreak and skipper butterflies whose caterpillars can only survive on Baptisia. Slow to establish, but plants live for decades once rooted and grow substantially more impressive each year. Give it space from the start.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown white wild indigo propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
- Mature size
- 2–4 ft · 24–36 in wide
- Bloom time
- May–June
- Bloom color
- White
- USDA zones
- 4–9
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Native range
- Central and eastern United States from Wisconsin south to Florida and west to Nebraska and Texas
Care notes for white wild indigo.
Full sun to light shade in dry to average, well-drained soil. Do not transplant once established -- the deep taproot resents disturbance. Very slow to reach full size (three to five years) but then virtually immortal. No division needed. Cut back dead stalks in spring or leave for winter interest.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside white wild indigo.
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