Baptisia minor Melissa Blue
(syn: Baptisia australis var. minor A1T-002) If you have only grown Baptisia australis, then you’ve missed one of the best blue-flowered members of the genus Baptisia. Baptisia minor is its little-known cousin that’s actually superior to Baptisia australis in garden value. Take a Baptisia australis and shrink the leaves and plant by about half, attach an 18-24″ flower spike atop the clump, which is loaded with blue-lavender flowers from mid-April until early May, and you have Baptisia minor. In summer, the enormous black pods add garden interest as they cling to the sturdy old flower spikes. This offering is a seed strain from an excellently flowering form we selected from our original wild seed collection in Melissa, just north of Dallas, TX.
