'Storm Cloud' is absolutely one of my favorite perennials. The black shoots are so unique especially when you look close up at the tips and can see the hint of the blue flowers to come. The flowers are a lovely shade of blue, no deadheading required and once the blooms are done the foliage looks like a lovely vase shaped shrub. Just a stellar plant in my opinion!

Amsonia in general do very well for me both in my previous garden with terrible rocky clay and in my current garden with dry sandy soil (where it gently re-seeds). Fair to say it is not fussy about soil. Storm cloud stays a nice size. My Amsonia tabernaemontana do get very large, but since they bloom early, you can clip them back into tidy mounds during the growing season and they add a willowy shrub-like structure to the garden (you can do this with Baptisia too). When cut, they weep a white late—like sap which is why they tend to be unbothered by deer.

I grow the following varieties in addition to tabernaemontana. Storm Cloud, Blue Ice, String Theory and Butterscotch.

I have 'Blue Ice' and 'Butterscotch'. I've had 'Blue Ice' since 2011 but have always been disappointed that the foliage doesn't turn colors in the Fall. It is a great plant. Easy care. And the best thing is rabbits don't eat it! I am hoping the 'Butterscotch' will turn color in the Fall. It's supposed to. This will be the year that should prove it or not.

I am planning on using these as a tall ground cover in an area that I'm working on to turn into a Hedgerow. It will sit along the top of a rock edge. This year, after almost 20 years, I notice it really spread in the last couple of years. I'm lifting it after it blooms to divide and move into the new position. I should get about 5 divisions from the patch I have that is now too close to a Hydrangea. 'Blue Ice' has pretty almost navy blue flower buds before they open.

I have 5 'Storm Clolud' in a very wet area in heavy clay. They do very well, but offer no fall color. I kind of wish I had used 'Blue Ice' because the flowers are a much deeper blue.

Storm Cloud looks great! I grow Blue Ice and it is as trouble free as others have said.

pm I grow A. hubrichtii and it colours up beautifully. Some years better than others depending on the weather. I hope Butterscotch perform well for you this year.

Peren.all - I think the reason I haven't used hubrichtii is it's large, isn't it? Blue Ice for me has been as trouble free as Sedum 'Autumn Joy'. You plant it and forget it. [g] I hope I didn't just jinx myself...lol

This is either my 2nd or 3rd season w Butterscotch, and I don't remember whether the foliage gave me color in the fall last year. I'll be very happy if it does this year.

A. hubrichtii is just a bit larger than Butterscotch. I might need to try that one too. I so appreciate that the deer leave all the Amsonia alone. One less thing to spray.

Many years ago I grew A. tabernaemontana (probably blue ice) in Minnesota and they were indestructible.

Now, 40 years later (I just turned 60) I'm growing Butterscotch and Storm Cloud.

Butterscotch was very slow the first two seasons, only 4 stems both years & no flowers, but this year it has 13 stems and is covered with buds!

I saw what I later learned was Stormcloud in a garden two years ago and it blew me away....I'm a sucker for dark/black stems. I ordered a plant online which I now have but it is tin, and will need a year (or three?) to look like anything, but I'm excited to achieve something like the huge patch I was smitten by two years ago.

That's a good-looking plant Markay.

Seems like I picked a winner. :0) Hopefully it's as easy to grow as you all tell me it is.

I am in the same boat as prairie moon I have what’s pictured which I believe is blue ice. This is year three and the best it’s looked. Ignore the untidy bed I haven’t gotten to mulching the backyard. I have it around a fringe tree. My butterscotch hasn’t bloomed yet. It’s on year two. It looked great in the fall.

Butterscotch didnt have great fall color until the 2nd year in my garden. It got better after that

I have a mixed experienced with Blue Ice. one plant became exceptionally woodly; I cant tell if it will send up green shoots or not. I find the pale blue ineffective but its on me not to have found a way to highlight it.

Jameszone7a - Very pretty trio of 'Blue Ice'.

Marie, I'm not a big fan of the light blue flowers but I love the navy buds.

Here is my patch of 'Blue Ice' I just trimmed off all of last year's dead stems and it's ready to leaf out. You can see it's a pretty large footprint. It's too close to the trunk of that 'Little Lime' Hydrangea, so it's ready for a new home. I didn't get a chance to move it when I should have, so I'm waiting for it to bloom first.

Jameszone7 - are you sure your Amsonias are not 'Storm Cloud'? I was looking at Amsonia photos and yours looks more like that one.

@prariemoon I’ll have to check I keep all the tags. I know one is butterscotch. It’s around my Kentucky coffee tree. My other variety is around my fringe the.

PM

I will be interested in your experience dividing it. . It was so woody I found it near impossible. Finally took a reciprocating saw to it and nearly shook my teeth out.

Im sure my gardening “ Helper” could do it with a sharp shovel; i just was not strong enough.

I really love the black stems on Storm Cloud. This is Amsonia illustris or also Amsonia tabernaemontana var. illustris. Illustris has leaves that are shinier and more wavy than the regular tabernaemontana, and it's seed pods hang down instead of pointing up. That would be nice if storm cloud really is an easy maintainance slow spreader. Every year I have to divide my illustris and just keep one quarter.

I also grow Amsonia hubrichtii. Ive started chopping my illustris back after blooming, to bring in more light and avoid self sown seedlings. Amsonia orientalis is a new one for me. I didn't know there was a Eurasian Amsonia species. Blue Ice is A. orientalis.

My "Storm Cloud" has filled out quite nicely already, even in spite of me not keeping up with watering a newly planted plant as I should have. It looks nice under the pear tree, I'm glad I got it. I'm sure it will be even better as the years go by. :0)

Just this spring i got a start of Blue Ice Amsonia, and although it's still very small, it's growing well and most amazingly- deer, rabbits, groundhogs, no wildlife has eaten it!

Just to add, A. tabernaemontana cultivars can handle periodic flooding as long as it drains quickly. A. hubrechtii requires dryer soil.

Sue, that is a real selling point on Amsonnia, that critters don't eat it. :-) Marie, I'm not up to dividing things this season, and actually, this spring when I looked at my front bed, I have Hydrangea Little Lime there with Amsonia 'Blue Ice' in front and it has filled out a nice big patch and has migrated in under the drip line of the shrub. It looked so good there that I decided not to disturb it. Hopefully I will buy new Amsonias to try my ground cover idea in another border.