Hey - I too have been thinking of getting this shrub. Nearly Native has it and they have a good rating with Dave's Garden, but I've never personally ordered from them. Good Luck!! And if you get one, let us know how you like it. Frances Here is a link that might be useful: Nearly Native

Yep, Baptisia is commonly called "Prairie False Indigo" - according to many places on the web and both my Audubon guide and *snork* Reader's Digest Guide to Plants and Animals blah blah blah... The white particularly. I'm a wool dyer so it's interesting to me as you can actually use it for that purpose - there's enough indigotin in it. Haven't yet, but I keep thinking about it! Just hit that link too, "Desert False Indigo" - that explains it... You know, that legume family is so huge... If you'd like some Baptisia seeds either white or purple - also there were tons of my seeds that went to the seed swap of both colors so bound to be extra starts out there - let me know! -Marie

Those pictures look like nutrient deficiencies to me. Compost has to break down before plants can absorb its nutrients. I would suggest foliar feeding with a complete formula that also contains micronutrients. Spray generously so that some of the nutrient liquid drips into the soil where it can also be absorbed by the roots. I use several commercial soluble nutrient formulas, including Miracle-Gro and Better-Gro. For foliar feeding, you don't want the stuff to be too concentrated, so I dilute it to about one teaspoon per gallon. If you will be spraying flower petals, which are extra sensitive, I would use only about one quarter teaspoon per gallon. You could increase that to one tablespoon per gallon if you were not foliar spraying, but just watering the plant with a nutrient drench. ZM

Barron, I was overrun with seedlings from one Azure sage the first year I grew it. Its not an impact plant but it was a generous seeder here, it got quite tall, at least 7ft tall if you held the thin branches up and there was lots of branches twisting around in all directions from not being able to hold itself erect in good soil. I moved mine to a dry lean spot down by the street and it is much smaller and well behaved there. Along the Kansas roadside where I got my rooted start most of the patches of Leadplant were at least 12 or more feet wide growing for miles all along the rural side roads and they were blooming heavily. What looked like a small separate plant was actually connected underground to the others so it appeared one plant keeps sending up new plants from roots eventually forming a large colony. The roots are very tough. The effect was dramatic because they stand out boldly in stark contrast. It probably takes a long time to get to that point but well worth the wait. The soil looked rich and fertile in some places and pretty steep and rocky in others. They like average to dry soil. I can certainly provide dry. In wetter areas you'd probably want to plant the green type, Amorpha fruticosa which Klunk listed. Down here I have quite a few Turk's Cap Malvaviscus drummondii (Texas native). This year I have enough berries full of seeds to plant a field of them. Its a good impact plant further south that will grow & bloom heavily in full sun to full shade. Drought doesn't seem to faze it and we always have to factor that in down here because if a plant is not tolerant it won't last in the long run-- one hot dry summer is all it takes.