Wild Blue Indigo
Baptisia australis
Spikes of saturated indigo-blue in late spring over a shrub-like blue-green mound. Long-lived and structural, it rewards you for decades.
Typically 1 pint–1 gal · $9–$30 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 AM – 2 PM
The most architecturally complete native perennial. deep blue spring bloom, bold blue-green summer foliage, rattling black pods in fall.
Wild Blue Indigo is one of the great native perennials: structural, long-lived, deeply rooted, and spectacular in bloom. The blue-green, shrub-like mound of compound leaves is handsome all season, then in late spring sends up spikes of deep blue-violet lupine-like flowers that stop people in their tracks. The flowers are a rich, saturated indigo that is almost impossible to find elsewhere in the native plant palette. After flowering, inflated charcoal-black seed pods rattle and bob in the wind through fall and winter, providing both wildlife value and visual interest. Like all baptisias, it fixes nitrogen, improves the soil, and is a host plant for multiple butterfly species including the Wild Indigo Duskywing and Orange Sulphur. Give it room: a mature clump can reach 4 feet across, and then leave it alone. It will reward you for decades.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown wild blue 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
- 3–4 ft · 36–48 in wide
- Bloom time
- Late spring
- Bloom color
- Blue
- USDA zones
- 3–9
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Native range
- Eastern and central United States, from Vermont south to Georgia, west to Nebraska
Care notes for wild blue indigo.
Plant in full sun in average to well-drained soil. Do not transplant once established. the deep taproot makes it nearly impossible. Slow to establish (2-3 years) but then permanent. Do not over-fertilize. Leave seed pods through winter. Cut back in early spring before new growth. Patience produces one of the most rewarding perennials in eastern gardens.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside wild blue indigo.
Or skip the guesswork.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.