The long, cold winter is behind us in Virginia, and the Garden Club of Virginia is celebrating blue false indigo or blue wild indigo as the 2025-26 most valuable native plant.
April is recognized as Native Plant Month and the Baptisia australis is the inaugural choice for the designation, which will be selected each year.
The author here planted two of these native plants last year after a friend posted her images on social media. Both are doing well as they break ground this spring.
The blue false indigo was chosen in part because it is an excellent pollinator plant, providing nectar and pollen for bats, bees, hummingbirds, moths and butterflies. It serves as the host plant for the larvae of the wild indigo duskywing, orange sulfur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin, eastern tailed blue and hoary edge butterflies.
The blue lupine-like flowers bloom starting in late April and lasting through June.
ICYMI
- Creating a daffodil and tulip masterpiece: ‘It looks like a Monet painting’
- Discount program returns for the purchase of native trees and shrubs in Virginia
- Mark Historic Garden Week with tours of Staunton, Augusta County
- Tess Majors Foundation funds scholarships for Rockbridge County-based Nature Camp
The Garden Club of Virginia, established in 1920, is a nonprofit organization focused on conserving natural resources, preserving Virginia’s historic public gardens and cultivating the knowledge and love of gardening.
GCV has 48 independent garden clubs with 3,400 members throughout Virginia offering educational programming in conservation, floral design, horticulture, photography and more for its members and the general public.
While the Baptisia australis is not included in the sale, Throwing Shade VA offers discounts on native trees and shrubs at participating nursery locations throughout the state. There are more than 125 species eligible for the program.
Gardening products recommended by the author
- Bulb Planter Tool, 5-in-1 garden tool
- Digital Rain Gauge with Thermometer
- Saw-Tooth Edger Lawn Tool
- Japanese Weeding Sickle
- Berry&Bird Garden Hoe
- Tiller Cultivator for Garden and Lawn
- Heavy Duty Weed Barrier Landscape Fabric
- Grampa’s Weeder with Long Handle
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Crystal Graham
