This is a great plant.

1. A few years.

2. If grown in full sun and "lean & mean", no.

3. Fairly; although the seed-pods are attractive.

4. I don't.

Hope this helps.

I agree completely with Coolplantsguy on all counts. And, the fact that they bloom at the same time as peonies means you will have a spectacular combination! I love peony bouquets with spikes of baptisia. So simple and so beautiful!

Hi,
I love my baptisia. This is its 2nd year and it is full of buds right now. My hybrid twilite prairie blues has greenish-gray leaves that I think are beautiful and a nice contrast with everything else. I have never cut it back or heard of doing so.
Mine does not get as much sun exposure at the back of the bed, so it leans a little, but does not flop.
A worker at the local garden center told me she likes the australis best because it has those "true blue" flowers.
Enjoy!

I have about a dozen baptisias--all more than ten years old--a couple almost 30 years old.

1--A few years to look great--more than a few years to get this wide. They are taller than 3' in bloom.

2--In full sun, a big clump will probably not need staking. With any shade, maybe.

3--Gorgeous foliage all season--one of the big attractions of baptisia.

4--I absolutely cut them back at least a foot--only takes a few minutes. If not, they flop. And the peapods are not at all attractive--dusty black. If you don't chop them back, they will almost certainly flop.

This is one the top ten perennials in my garden--love them.

I agree with all said above. I've never cut mine back til last year, but I'm going to cut it back a bit from now on. Mainly to allow the annuals I plant around it a bit more sun. Not really floppy, but it covers a lot of space. I started mine from seeds 7 or 8 years ago, got great germination & planted all the seedlings in a fairly close area, expecting to lose a few. Don't think I lost any, so they are quite bushy.

I never cut mine back but later in the season if they get floppy you can do some selective pruning to shape them and remove any leaning or heavy parts of the plant. Start out with australis but I imagine you will find it hard to not start collecting the other species and cultivars. Baptisia 'Purple Smoke' has especially nice foliage.

Baptisia is one of the few things I miss about the east coast.

I'm glad I read this! I'll try cutting mine back this year, too. Like ngraham, I would like a little more sun to reach the other plants around it.

I've had a Baptisia for almost 10 years. I love mine too. It is one of the most carefree pl*ants in my yard that comes back faithfully and blooms faithfully every year. I did not have a full sun location for mine. It is facing west where there is a grouping of old silver maples in neighboring yards, so it doesn't get that much sun. No sun before 11:30am and then shade by about 4pm, and it still blooms! But it does flop and doesn't stand up straight. I expected that, but I use a hoop and it works out fine. It looks different but still nice.

Not the best photo, but this should give you an idea of what it looks like in less sun. I don't think I had started using support at this point.....

{{gwi:208620}}

I forgot to answer some of your questions....

Yes, I now use the hoop every year and it is just about invisible and makes a big difference. I don't think it is necessary in full sun. Yes, the foliage is clean, attractive and in*sect free all season. I have left it to go to seed a number of times and I like it that way but in less sun, it does get a little scraggly and messy, so some years when I think of it, I have trimmed it back. I do like the seedpods though.

Thanks so much for all your timely comments. I had planned to head to our garden center as they're having a 35% off sale on Baptisia.

Prairiemoon: Thanks so much for the picture of your plant. It's absolutely beautiful and definitely sold me on Baptisia. The foliage IS very pretty.

Thanks one and all and Happy Gardening!

What are the lovely, perky and cheerful looking white and blue flowered plants below the baptisia?

summerstar, I'm sure you will be happy with it. And it stays attractive even after bloom. You might even like the black seed pods. They sometimes rattle in the wind once they are ripe too.

Debra, those are Cranesbill 'Biokovo' and 'Karmina' together. They are actually a pale pink and lavender. They are completely carefree, they bloom for almost a month and the fol*iage turns red in the fall.

Hi, everyone! New to this forum, but not to GW. I am primarily on the Butterfly Gardening forum and the Oklahoma Gardening forum. I just bought my Baptisia australia var. minor last year. It looks identical but is just shorter and shrubbier. It is in full blooms right now. I bought mine in a 1 gal. pot and it had a couple of blooms at the time of purchase. I wasn't sure it would actually bloom this year because I have heard that it can take a few years to reach blooming size. So I was pleasantly surprised.

Baptisia australis is the 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year, and I am so glad they chose this beautiful native plant. It rightfully deserves the accolades.

As a butterfly gardener, I bought this plant as a host/larval host for the cute little Wild Indigo Duskywings (the common name for this plant is Wild Indigo). Lo and behold I found a group of them last year, and they overwintered as tiny caterpillars to emerge this spring as soon as the foliage did. They are so small, you will barely notice anything at all on your foliage unless you are specifically looking for them. It can also be a host for the Dogface Sulphur butterfly. Neither of these caterpillars will do any noticeable damage to the plant since they are quite small.

I am so glad I purchased this plant last year. Your photo of your plant is lovely PrairieMoon2. "Minor" is about 2' tall after planting last year. And that is probably the maximum height for this shorter version.

Susan

Beautiful Baptisia PM2!

Baptisia is a nitrogen-fixing plant so it can grow well in very lean soil. Also very drought tolerant because of the husky root system. I've got the nursery plants Baptisia Twilight Prairie Blues & Carolina Moonlight, both of which are beautiful and do not flop even though they are in partial sun and lean somewhat towards the sun. They would probably bloom more floriferously in full sun however.

I've also started B. australis and B. leucantha (white Baptisia) from seed in 2008, but they are being held in gallon pots and don't know if they will bloom this year yet. I've read it is a slow to establish from seed, but is a very long-lived perennial.

Thanks, it has surprised me that it does so well in the small amount of sun it gets. I think I have it planted too close to the house and would love to move it but I heard it was a bear to move and there's always something more urgent to do in the gar*den.

Susan, I am going to have to look for that smaller version. I also didn't realize it was a host for butterflies. I haven't seen any evidence of that here. Lucky you. :-)

Terrene, I LOVE that Twi*light Blue and Carolina Moonlight. I wish I had a place for them. I hope you will share some photos when they bloom. You winter sow, have you tried growing either from seed?

This year my 4 yr old Baptisia australis got huge - meaning about 4'+ tall. Our warmest spring in 100 yrs maybe the cause?
I do ring it every year and normally just let it do it's thing. It is in 6 hour sun - afternoon facing SW.

It is flopping bad, bent over completely at the ring- rain and wind. Some of the stems are so bent, I will not be able to stand them up, unless I stake individually, which I'd rather not.
I was wondering whether I can cut it back to the ground? Never did this before and do not want to stress the plant more then it is already, but everything underneath is now too wet and on it's way to dying. Actually my prairie smoke is out of control this year also, so I might cut back that too.
Any ideas/opinions on this?