Amsonia Arkansas Blue Star

At last, Amsonia Arkansas Blue Star gets the recognition it so richly deserves! Named the 2011 Perennial Plant of the Year, it is suddenly on everyone's wish list. We're pleased to make Amsonia Arkansas Blue Star available here, and to add our voice to the chorus of praise for this low maintenance, deer- and drought-resistant native perennial. For multi-season interest in color, texture, and form, there's nothing to beat it!

Every season brings a new color show with this delightfully easy, hard-working native plant. In late spring and early summer, masses of tiny, sky-blue blooms add cool tones to the sunny garden. In summer, the finely-cut, feathery dark green foliage forms a rich backdrop for your showy annuals and perennials. And in fall, the leaves turn a blazing golden-yellow that rivals Japanese Maples for intensity and beauty!

Amsonia Arkansas Blue Star Flower is a modest little plant, just 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide, with a bushy, unfussy habit that gives little hint of the riches it has in store for you. A good neighbor in the border or bed (it is not invasive, but can hold its own with competing roots), it is especially attractive planted among ornamental grasses and in front of fragrant shrubs such as Clethra 'Ruby Spice,' which not only shares its sweet scent with Amsonia but also participate in the fall foliage show!

Content in any well-drained soil receiving full sun to light shade, Amsonia Arkansas Blue Star Flower tolerates dry soil and drought once established. It is generally unpalatable to deer, but butterflies and bees simply cannot get enough. Soft to the touch, billowy and beautiful, is an all-season investment in the landscape. Plant several -- spacing them about 3 feet apart -- for a glorious ribbon of fall color! Zones 5-9.