Baptisia leucantha

WILD WHITE INDIGO

Baptisia leucantha
WILD WHITE INDIGO

Baptisia leucantha gives spectacular spires of white pea-like blooms in summer, over blue-grey foliage.

A stately beauty

A thicket of flowering stems make a tall and rounded bush that you just cant miss because of the showy spires.
Plus the white pea blooms are strikingly displayed on purple-black stems.

Plant in a sunny position.

Dry heat & humidity tolerant

Baptisia leucantha is easy to grow, as it is a tough, hardy, perennial.
So it is drought resistant once established, and will continue to give you those marvellous spires year after year.
And it is considered an excellent water saving choice for gardeners with rationed water supply.
As well as an excellent choice for gardens that have summer humidity.
It is tolerant of a wide range of soils from poorer gravel or sandy soils to clay.

Rabbits detest while birds & bees adore

Happily it is also very frost hardy.
And rabbits and deer do not enjoy the taste of Baptisia leucantha, while nectar eating birds and bees just adore it.
So it provides welcome food to our flying friends as well as great entertainment for us watching them at work.

1-1.8m. High in flower x 60m. Wide approx, making a rounded thicket of flowering stems.

Bigger & better every year

Baptisia leucantha is in no way invasive, as it has no runners. But your clump will get fatter, denser and more impressive year after year.
Once you have chosen a spot, leave your Baptisia leucantha to get on with it, as they resent being dug or transplanted, and you would hate to lose this stately beauty.

SEED SOWING ADVICE: QUICK & EASY

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

INDOORS: Scarify seeds by gently rubbing between sheets of fine sandpaper.
Then soak seeds in warm water in a glass – leave for 24 hours to soften the hard outer coating.
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.

If your seeds are shy to germinate –then  cling wrap moist, sown punnet & place in fridge (not freezer) for 6 weeks.
This will break the seed’s natural dormancy (The seed 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: 8 seeds per pack approx. (We have few seeds of this unusual and rarely available plant).

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