Amsonia tabernaemontana - Eastern bluestar

Amsonia tabernaemontana is a robust North American perennial plant that should be seen more often in gardens. Adorned with a long spring to summer flowering consisting of clusters of light blue star-shaped flowers, and beautiful foliage of a very vibrant green, amsonia has a presence equivalent to that of a small shrub. In addition to these ornamental qualities, it has good hardiness combined with the vigor of wild plants. This amsonia will bring a lot of lightness and rural charm to perennial or shrub borders, in full sun or partial shade. It takes a little while to establish, but it is easy to grow in well-drained, moist, or even wet soil in summer.

Amsonia tabernaemontana is a plant from the Apocynaceae family, it is a cousin of our periwinkles native to the northeast and center of the United States. It can be found growing in sandy soils, in the undergrowth, in wet environments. This herbaceous perennial plant develops numerous shoots that elongate from spring and form with time bushy, very flexible clumps, with a slightly spreading habit, reaching approximately 70-80 cm (28-32in) in height when flowering and over 40 cm (16in) in width. This plant takes time to establish, but it is very perennial, reliable, and lives for many years. Its long blue and coiled buds open into small light blue flowers with a darker central line, very bright, which appear as very open tubes, hairy on the reverse side. The throat of the flower is white, washed in white-green and surrounded by white hairs. They are grouped in pyramidal panicles and bloom abundantly between May and July, even until autumn, for several weeks. The leaves are lanceolate in shape, about 15 cm (6in) long, and alternately arranged on the stems. Their colour is a light green marked by yellowish veins. They are very attractive even outside of the flowering period. The deciduous foliage takes on a beautiful autumn colour, bright yellow, before disappearing. The above-ground part of the plant disappears with the first frost, to spend the winter in dormancy.

Very hardy, Amsonia grow easily in full sun or partial shade, in well-drained soil that does not dry out in summer. A magnificent ornamental plant for gardens, Amsonia tabernaemontana enhances all its neighbours, whether opulent perennials or modest shrubs. You can easily associate it with daylilies, willowherbs, ironweeds, Cape lilies, perennial geraniums, or ornamental grasses in moist soil. It is also an excellent plant for partial shade, to be combined with bleeding hearts, Japanese anemones, which take over in August-September. Planted en masse, in a composition of Baptisia, large echinaceas, and sunflowers, amsonia provides an evocative and wild scene from another continent. Its flowers are also very beautiful in summer bouquets.