Amorpha canescens

Amorpha canescens is a small bush that thrives in dry and rocky soils, heat, and sun. Still rare, it is now making its way into dry gardens, offering the advantage of flowering in summer, along with very beautiful foliage, at a time of year when gardens can start to look a bit sad after the luxuriance of spring has dried up. This deciduous bush is adorned with unique, alomst sparkling, blooms that are carried in long spikes at the end of the branches. As surprising up close as from afar, they are composed of small blue-violet flowers from which orange stamens gradually emerge, powdered with gold. A precious and very sturdy plant, it requires full sun and a very exposed site to perform at its best.

Amorpha canescens, from the Fabaceae family, is sometimes called false-indigo due to the blue dye that American colonists extracted from the flowers of this plant. It is a cousin of Baptisia australis, another dye plant also called Indigo Lupine. It is native to North America, from Indiana to Minnesota and Manitoba and down to the southern parts of Kansas and New Mexico. It is most often found on dry and sandy or rocky soil. Its foliage falls in autumn.

It is a weakly suckering bush with a loose and open habit, whose young shoots often die in cold climates but which easily regrows from the stump in spring and becomes more and more woody with time. Its growth is fast, reaching about 80 cm (32 in) in height, a little less in width. The foliage is composed of 10 to 50 very small ovate and elongated leaflets (9mm (0.4 in) x 3mm), silver-grey and velvety when opening, becoming grey-green in summer, even more silvery when drought is significant. Flowering occurs from July to September depending on the climate, and lasts about 3 weeks. The flowers, grouped in thin spikes 10-15 cm (4 - 6 in) long, are composed of a single blue-violet petal rolled up, releasing orange stamens with golden yellow pollen. The fruits are pods that persist on the plant throughout winter. The taproot of Amorpha canescens is capable of reaching more than 4m (13 in 1 ft) deep to fetch water. It is not long-lived in humid areas.

The false-indigo is a beautiful plant of dry slopes, hardy down to -20°C (-4 °F), that requires absolutely no maintenance. It is most precious in regions that are very dry in summer, in a border or in a large sunny rockery, in the company of cistus, lavender, rosemary, asphodel, thyme, teucrium, and other Mediterranean plants. It can be combined with Epilobium canum 'Western Hills' and gauras to accompany its flowering period in an unirrigated garden. Its powerful roots also contribute to stabilising slopes in sandy or even chalky soils.