{"title":"Indigofera (Indigos)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe genus name is literal: \u003cem\u003eIndigofera\u003c\/em\u003e, the indigo bearer. The dye came from \u003cem\u003eIndigofera tinctoria\u003c\/em\u003e and a few relatives, and from the late 1740s until the end of the century indigo stood second only to rice among the exports of colonial South Carolina. Eliza Lucas Pinckney is the name attached to that story and earned a real part of it, though the experiments ran through a dozen Lowcountry planters, and the working knowledge of the dye came largely from enslaved Africans who had made indigo long before they ever saw Carolina. The history sits close to home for a nursery in Aiken, though the plants grown here are ornamental rather than commercial.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat the garden species offer is a long, quiet season of pea flowers on airy compound foliage. \u003cem\u003eIndigofera incarnata\u003c\/em\u003e, sometimes still sold as \u003cem\u003eIndigofera decora\u003c\/em\u003e, carries pink-and-white racemes low and spreading; the white form is cleaner still. \u003cem\u003eIndigofera heterantha\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eIndigofera amblyantha\u003c\/em\u003e are taller Himalayan and Chinese shrubs that flower rose-purple from early summer until frost, and both bloom on new wood, so a hard cut in late winter costs nothing. As legumes they fix their own nitrogen and want sun, drainage, and very little else.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"indigofera-incarnata","title":"Indigofera incarnata","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe genus is the one that turned the Lowcountry blue. Indigofera gave colonial South Carolina its great cash crop alongside rice, the dye that Eliza Lucas Pinckney coaxed into commercial cultivation around Charleston in the 1740s and that filled the colony's coffers for a generation, made with skill drawn largely from enslaved West Africans. That fortune rested on a tropical cousin, Indigofera tinctoria, but the family trait runs through the whole genus, and the leaves of this one will give up the same blue if you care to steep them. We grow the plant for the flowers instead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndigofera incarnata, the Chinese indigo, comes from the streambanks and open woods of China and Japan, and earns the other common name, summer wisteria, honestly: through June and July the plant hangs narrow four to eight inch racemes of small pea flowers, twenty to forty to a spike, in a clear soft pink. The bloom opens on the current year's wood and carries on in scattered flushes toward September. (The white-flowered form is sold separately as 'Alba'; this is the rose-colored species, whatever a careless label might once have suggested.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLow and traveling, a foot or two tall and three or four wide, the Chinese indigo suckers gently into a soft mound of fine pinnate foliage, and, being a legume, gives nitrogen back to the ground it sits in. Cut the plant hard in late winter and it returns to flower right through the heat, a quiet rose-pink drift in the stretch of summer when most shrubs have already called it a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUse Chinese indigo as a flowering groundcover on a bank or at the front of a border, where the low, spreading habit can knit awkward ground together and the long pink season fills the summer lull. Give sun, a little afternoon shade where summers run brutal, and decent drainage, and pair with grasses, late perennials, or other tough sun-lovers; bees and other pollinators work the flowers all season.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057898426483,"sku":"INDI-INCA-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-413.jpg?v=1720138990"},{"product_id":"indigofera-incarnata-alba","title":"Indigofera incarnata 'Alba'","description":"\u003cp\u003eNo genus carries more Carolina history in its name than this one. Indigofera means indigo-bearing, and indigo was the blue that built the colonial Lowcountry: in the 1740s a young Eliza Lucas Pinckney coaxed a successful crop out of the land around Charleston, and for a generation the dye stood second only to rice among the colony's exports, made with skill drawn largely from enslaved West Africans, until the Revolution cut the British bounty and the fields went quiet. The plant that did that work was Indigofera tinctoria.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is their ornamental cousin, grown for the eye rather than the vat. Indigofera incarnata is the Chinese indigo, and incarnata means flesh-colored, after the soft pink the species usually wears; 'Alba' is the white-flowered form, cooler and quieter. Fine, almost ferny pinnate leaves set off long racemes of small white pea flowers from early summer well into fall, opening a few at a time so there is always something coming.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese make a low, slowly spreading subshrub, a foot or two high and wider than that, the kind of soft-scaled groundcover that knits an awkward slope together. The flowers come on new growth, so a hard cut in late winter only improves the plant, the way it does a buddleia. Being a legume, the shrub fixes its own nitrogen and asks little of the soil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGive 'Alba' sun, a little afternoon shade where summers run brutal, and decent drainage, and the plant will quietly cover ground that nothing tidier would forgive. Use on a bank, at the front of a border, or spilling over a low wall, where the white bloom cools a hot planting and lengthens the season; pair with grasses and late perennials, and let the bees find the flowers all summer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057898492019,"sku":"INDI-INCA-ALBA-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-414.jpg?v=1720138993"},{"product_id":"indigofera-heterantha","title":"Indigofera heterantha","description":"\u003cp\u003eIndigofera heterantha, the Himalayan indigo, is a graceful deciduous shrub from the mountains of the western Himalaya, a nitrogen-fixing legume grown for a long summer-into-fall run of rosy-purple pea flowers over ferny foliage. Michael Dirr, in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, notes that the species has performed admirably in his Georgia trials, and the plant has earned a quiet following among Southern gardeners for toughness and length of bloom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe genus name Indigofera means indigo-bearing, after the blue dye that a few tropical relatives, chiefly Indigofera tinctoria, once supplied to half the world. In the 1740s that dye became the great cash crop of colonial South Carolina, developed by Eliza Lucas Pinckney around Charleston and made with skill drawn largely from enslaved West Africans. The Himalayan indigo is an ornamental cousin, grown for flowers rather than dye, but the lineage lends the plant a certain depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom early summer through fall, five-inch racemes of rosy-purple, pea-shaped flowers rise from the leaf axils, carried on arching stems clothed in fine, many-leafleted compound foliage. The overall effect is airy and unforced, a soft haze of color rather than a solid mass. The shrub reaches four to eight feet where winters are mild, dying back and resprouting in colder gardens, and flowers on the current season's growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGive Himalayan indigo sun or a little afternoon shade and well-drained soil, and cut the plant back in late winter to keep it dense and floriferous. As a legume it asks for no rich feeding and tolerates lean ground and drought once established. Use in a mixed border, a pollinator planting, or against a warm wall in cooler regions, where bees work the long season of rosy bloom; pair with ornamental grasses and late perennials that echo the airy texture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057898590323,"sku":"INDI-HETE-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1533.jpg?v=1720138996"},{"product_id":"indigofera-amblyantha","title":"Indigofera amblyantha","description":"\u003cp\u003eTed Stephens of Nurseries Caroliniana calls this one of his top ten favorite plants, and the reason is bloom. Indigofera amblyantha, the pink indigo, is a fast, airy, deciduous shrub from the streambanks of central China, a nitrogen-fixing legume in the vast genus Indigofera, and one of the longest-flowering hardy shrubs a Southern garden can grow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe genus carries real history. Indigofera means indigo-bearing, and the dye that colored the colonial world came chiefly from tropical kin such as Indigofera tinctoria. In the 1740s Eliza Lucas Pinckney coaxed indigo into a commercial crop around Charleston, where for a generation the blue dye stood second only to rice among South Carolina's exports, and the skill of making it drew heavily on the knowledge of enslaved West Africans. Indigofera amblyantha is not a dye plant, carrying only trace precursors and nothing commercial, but the lineage is part of what makes the genus worth knowing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat amblyantha does instead is flower without pause. Soft pink, pea-shaped blooms open in upright racemes at nearly every leaf node from late spring into October, a six-month window that almost no other hardy shrub can match, the first spikes still opening fresh flowers as frost arrives, followed by slender dark purple seedpods. The plant grows six to eight feet in a season on airy, gray-green, pinnate foliage with a see-through quality that lets companions show behind it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardy to about zone 6, pink indigo dies back in hard winters and resprouts from the base each spring, so a hard cut to twelve or eighteen inches in late winter only makes for denser, better growth. As a legume the shrub fixes its own nitrogen and thrives on lean soil in full sun to light shade. Use amblyantha in a cottage border, a pollinator planting, or anywhere a long, soft season of pink is wanted; bees work the flowers steadily through the summer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057898688627,"sku":"INDI-AMBL-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/IndigoferaamblyanthaMBG.jpg?v=1745771555"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/indigofera.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}