My 2 yr old Baptisia australis, Blue Wild Indigo has buds, but when I cut away old stems, I noticed its crown has sunk an inch or two. There is a round pot size depression. I understand they have massive root systems so I'm guessing it's too big already to move without wrecking the adjoining plant's roots. It is located in a fully planted mixed border. Should I fill it in with compost when the buds elongate a bit?
Advice appreciated.
Baptisia's crown has sunk! Should I try to correct it?
cedar, The Baptisia australis is a very hardy plant. One of mine was in the way of a new construction project and over half of it was removed by a bulldozer and the rest had 3 feet of roots exposed. I didn't expect it to return the following year but 2 years later it is back and would be just as large as the original plant if I let it.
I don't recall the plant sinking but I think your plan of waiting a bit and adding a little compost would work.
thanks so much; i was beginning to despair of a reply! This is my first experience with baptisia. I will do the compost thing then and hope for the best. It does sound like a tough-y! I should try to get a piece to put out in the deer-buffet area.
If you let the seed pods ripen on the plant you'll have plenty of seeds and seedlings to grow new plants. It is quite prolific. Just move the seedlings to their permanent spot when they're small, within the first year of growth.
Besides the seed pods are very decorative.
Here is a photo of the pods on the Baptisia along with purple coneflower seed heads. I leave them all on for the birds.
Oh your garden is so pretty! I will try that with the seeds this year. I actually have 2 baptisia: the one in question and "Purple Smoke". I have been impressed with what a nice shrub the plant makes.
happy gardening.
Be careful trying to fill in your sunken area--you never want to cover up the crown of a plant with soil/compost/mulch/etc since that can lead to rot. So if filling in the sunken area will wind up piling stuff over the crown then I wouldn't do it. But if you can somehow get some soil in underneath to help boost it back up again without covering up the crown then that's worth doing since having a depression there will tend to collect water which could also cause problems.
Thanks ecrane. I don't know if I can - it's pretty intensively planted. I guess i could try with a garden fork to 'jack' it up a bit. Although from the sound of it, I may need a hydraulic jack to do it! :)
I'm with ecrane. I wouldn't do it, or do it verrrry cautiously. The cause of baptisia death is normally that the bud at the crown juction does not sprout after winter, so I would hesitate to cover it very much. If you're not getting a lot of standing water in it, I would just cover it lightly with compost each year to try to keep it from going deeper.
I have a nursery, and let me tell you baptisia is one of the hardest plants to overwinter in pots. I get them in plugs in spring, and probably only get 50% overwintering. Where I normally get 90-95% on other plants. And it's all because of the crown area.
Wow, polly, that sounds like advice from experience! Thanks. My only previous experience was several years ago and the voles ate the roots before it had a chance to try and come back from winter! Dr. Armitage comments that B is a fave vole food.
How do you propagate yours? And will my "Purple Smoke" come true from seed?
Thanks for your input.
You're welcome.
I don't propagate, I buy plugs.
And sorry, no, Purple Smoke is a hybrid, and will not come back true from seed. You can divide baptisia, but it's hard to do. Propagation is best done by cuttings.