Ok folks, here you go….Indigofera Suffruticosa seeds for sale in my Etsy Shop, ColorsOfMy Valley, which is located here. SOLD OUT FOR 2018!
Offered just in time to start your seed trays. THIS IS NOT JAPANESE INDIGO!
It is Indigofera Suffruticosa or Anil De Pasto from the warmer climates. You can give a try growing it in colder climates. With protection it might be a perennial but I think it will turn annual on you with hard freezes and snows. Not a hardship, if you can get it to seed stage you can replant for the next season.
It starts out small in the seed trays, without trimming the shrub can get to 7+ feet.
I place about 4-8 seeds in each tray to start my seedlings. Here in the Texas Hill Country my biggest enemy behind drought is the crickets. I hold my seedlings in a protected area from frost and crickets and plant out when it is safe. They are mulched well. Tiny crickets can take your seedlings out early in the season, larger grasshoppers come for your leaves in the fall, be aware! Also give the shrubs room to spread. You can see from the photo above that untrimmed the suffruticosa will go for the sky. The hummingbirds love to hang out in the branches and visit the flowers.
When they are happy, they grow, produce indigo leaves, flowers and finally seeds. The curved pods resemble banana bunches. My shrubs have usually lasted 3 years. Very hard freezes can take them out. The prior season shrubs put out new branches fairly early. I pull the dead shrubs and put in the new seedlings in to fill the space.
These shrubs fill in nicely, can take east and west exposures with irrigation. I am testing them this year to see if the deer will much on them. My crops are grown in a protected area the deer cannot access. The flowers are lovely and the birds love the branches thru the winter to perch on. The hummingbirds use them for launching sites in the early spring. They are pleasant plants to have in the garden, they add height and take trimming in stride. But of course, it is all about the leaves! I trim my shrubs to shape and strip the leaves off of the smaller stems. I weigh my stripped leaves at this point to keep track of the color intensity yielded.
If you use fresh leaf extraction you are limited by the leaves you’ve harvested. I tend to do several harvests a year and dye skeins over the year. Building the layers as the leaves grow. Be patient. Of course you can also extract the pigment and save it for one annual dye bath. I simply prefer to continue to experiment with what each harvest gives me.
This shirt and silk skeins are from one dip in the fresh leaf fructose vat. One of the skeins has been dipped twice.
I am also experimenting with drying this indigo species leaves to see how it work for indigo leaf storage and fructose pot production. That will show up on my blog also when I have a few more results to add.
Freeze dried Indigo Suffruticosa leaves waiting for experimentation.
Indigofera Suffruticosa seeds for sale in my Etsy Shop, ColorsOfMy Valley, which is located here. SOLD OUT FOR 2018! One packet should be plenty to get you started with questions and leaves for you to experiment with!
debmcclintock 
do you get this blog? had lunch with Joanne. Needed it! We both vented. Roofer working. Now waiting for the insurance quote. No water in kitchen. M doing chicken on the grill tonight. paper plates. Hope to get started soon on the kitchen and DR floor.
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Rosemary, did you mean to send my blog link to someone? It ended up in my blog comments.
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Hi Deb- just received my seeds and will start them this week. Plan to plant in a couple locations and see where they prefer. I had stopped growing since the drought but want to try these which seem like they can take less water and more heat- perfect for here. I’m going to plan some in an area near one of my rain barrels and see about using that as much as possible. Thanks!
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Hey! Enjoy, I have found this plant does better than my Japanese Indigo, as much as I love my JI. Try soaking the seeds overnight in hot water before you plant them. I’ve had it grow in an east exposure, west exposure, sheltered southeast exposure. All give indigo in the leaves. It’s weakest point is hard freezes. I am into bud watch this spring on my mature plants to see who comes back and who gets pulled. I always save seed to start new plants plus I have volunteers that pop up. It starts well in pots and you can baby it but you will want to transplant it into the ground because it can get to 5 – 7 feet when it is very happy and needs a good root system to support it.
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