Baptisia Trio

Several kinds of Baptisia are blooming in the garden this week. Although they look very different, these pea relatives have a few things in common with the plants featured in my previous two posts, Crinum and Paeonia. In addition to all being favorites of mine, what they have in common is that they require patience because they are slow to establish and resent disturbance, are very tough and long-lived once established, getting bigger and better every year, and have attractive foliage and large forms that allow them to serve as anchors in the garden even while not in bloom.

The first to bloom in this trio is the Southeastern United States native, Baptisia alba. As you might have guessed, this one has white flowers. The specimen pictured I have been growing for more than 10 years and each growing season it gets to be shrub sized. Although it reaches its maximum height of about 5 feet while blooming, the foliage really thickens and the plant acquires much more visual mass after blooming.

Baptisia alba

The next to bloom in the trio is Baptisia 'Purple Smoke', a spontaneous hybrid of B. minor and B. alba from the North Carolina Botanical Garden with smoky blue flowers. So far it's been smaller than my largest B. alba, but that might just be the difference in their ages because I have only had 'Purple Smoke' about 5 years. It's topping out at about 4 feet and is now producing lots of flower spikes.

Baptisia 'Purple Smoke'

The last to bloom, although they all overlap, is Baptisia 'Carolina Moonlight', with light yellow flowers. Like 'Purple Smoke', it's also a hybrid (B. sphaerocarpa × B. alba) from the North Carolina Botanical Garden. I've had this plant only a few years and it's coming along just fine. For some reason, I keep wanting to call this one 'Carolina Moonshine', but that has another meaning altogether. Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery refers to Baptisia as Redneck Lupines, so perhaps that explains my association between Baptisia and Moonshine.

Baptisia 'Carolina Moonlight'