Bet On Baptisia To Please

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Last week, I brought my mom a bunch of Baptisia flowers cut from my garden and they lasted all week in a vase. Everyone who came to visit remarked upon the pretty purple flowers and wondered what they were. Baptisia australis or 'false indigo' is an easy-to-grow native perennial that's stunning through three seasons.

Which makes you wonder why isn't it better known and grown in more people's gardens? Probably because you can't buy it in bloom.

Baptisia is a perennial that needs to put down a long taproot before it flowers and that takes a year or two. So, when you buy it, it doesn't look like much, but get one anyway.

Once established, it sends up dramatic, tall spikes of flowers 3 or 4 feet high for a few weeks each spring. You'll enjoy its bushy green leaves and shrub-like shape all summer. Then, as the seed pods dry on the branches they shake musically in the breeze all during the fall.

So, ask for Baptisia at a nursery near you, or get some seeds to plant in a sunny spot. Then sit back and watch the show it puts on in your garden for years and years to come.