Good morning, I'm sending you an email. Linda

Here's a photo of a four year old - behind the rock. Acyually there's two there. Hasn't really bloomed yet in the photo so I would think this picture was taken at the start of July. The roots are massive. Some don't go deep but travel horizontally and when I first met up with them while weeding I had to take a step back! Some roots go for three feet and are as big as my thumb. But they don't seem to choke out other plants - it's not a fibrous root, but more like a carrot root. Know what I mean? I planted one in another section and will be removing 2 rose bushes and several foxgloves from it's feet. In the future I'll just plant annuals such as California Poppies at the base. Think of it as planting a shrub and you'll be fine. :O)

I bought 2 False Indigo plants at the Home Depot this year. I have never had these plants before and was not familiar with them but knew them to be native to my area. They had purple/blue flowers on them and looked nice. However, after the flowers were spent, they formed seeds in fluffy pappus. Tiny seeds, not at all like the black leguminous seeds of the baptisia. When I took a closer look, I found that the flowers and seeds were on a separate stalk, apparently not part of the baptisia plant! Not knowing what it was, and not wanting it to self-seed, I pulled the flower stalks out. What remained are actually 2 very small baptisias. Now that I have learned that Baptisias don't bloom for a few years, I am thinking that these are very young plants and not yet blooming. The grower probably interplanted something, maybe an annual, with a flower stalk that would mimic the Baptisia so that they could deliver something to the nursery that would sell. So now I would like to identify the mystery plant - but all I have is the seed and pappus. If anyone had the same experience and knows what it is, and whether I should want to plant these seeds, I would appreciate hearing.Here's a photo of the seeds and pappus. The seeds are tiny - MUCH smaller than poppy seeds and more gray than black. The pappus is very downy. Do I want this plant or is it some nasty invasive I will regret for the rest of my life? Thanks for any thoughts.

Hi Connie, I've never grown it myself, but it should do well in the Denver area, and it should be available at Paulino's in gallons this summer, and I'd be surprised if Kelly at Timberline doesn't have it too. I can email Cheryl at Paulino's and ask her if she'll have it this summer if you'd like. Timberline has an online list of the things they carry, but I can't open it to check. You might want to try that! Did you check to see if Tagawa has it, since they're closer to you? Skybird