Baptisia australis failure to thrive

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Hortaholic Toronto, Canada Sep 05, 2007

I planted Baptisia australis in my zone 6 garden 3 or 4 years ago. The yard faces west, and the plant is just to the east of a locust tree, so it gets some dappled afternoon shade, and deeper shade in the morning, when the house shades it. It does get several hours of sun, though. Clay soil.
I know these plants can take awhile to establish, but mine doesn't seem to be making progress. We had yet another very dry summer. The plant is about 1 1/2 feet tall, just a half dozen spindly stems. Also some browning at the edges of some of the leaves.
Any thoughts on what I could do to make the plant happier?

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Sep 06, 2007

Can you post a picture?

I think it's most likely that it hasn't got enough water--it sounds like you've had a couple pretty dry years, so it could be the plant's getting enough water to keep it alive but not enough to really stimulate it to grow a lot. If it's planted in the root zone of the locust tree that may not be helping it either, trees tend to take up a lot of whatever water is available, leaving a lot less for the plants, and if you put that on top of a drought year where you weren't getting much water to begin with, that could really stunt the growth of your plants.

Post #3941976
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Sep 06, 2007

They like a sandy gravely type of situation....if it were me I would plant that in a raised situation......it won't like clay.Since it is already planted use a liquid claybreaker and water that in....it does not mind a dryish situation and prefers a hungry soil and reasonable sun...in other words treat it badly....sorry.Good Luck :)

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paulgrow Allen Park, MI(Zone 6a) Sep 06, 2007

I have 2 of them I started from seed. It took several attempts to get the seeds to germinate but they finally took off.

Mine are 4-5 years old, west exposure in clay soil. I basically neglect them and they are thriving. I hardly ever water them.
4 feet tall with beautiful flowers.

I don't understand what's going on with yours.

I just harvested some seeds, would you like some of them to start.?

Paul

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