Wow, where do we even begin with baptisia's amazing qualities? This is one of our absolute favorite perennials, favorite flowers, and favorite foliages. It's exceptionally hardy and robust. Its in the legume family and is symbiotic with nitrogen fixing bacteria, which helps the baptisia to grow and compete with surrounding plants. It emerges out of the soil a bit like bluestar, with an amazing sense of strength and determination. It gets to be a robust plant that holds so many flowers stems it's hard to comprehend it's just one plant. And it comes in so many colors, Pink Lemonade being a favorite. And it's a native. Beautiful black seed pods that work great in dried floral work. It does take a couple years to establish though, but once it does it's not going anywhere. You can't go wrong with this plant, a must have in any native garden and in my opinion, any garden :). Easy to grow, give it full sun or full sun with a touch of afternoon shade, average soil, average moisture (though ours have all gone through some drought periods and have made it through fine).

Height: 3 to 3 1/2ft

Width: 4-5ft

Spacing: 3-4ft

Photos Courtesy of Walters Gardens, Inc.