Indigofera decora. Chinese Indigo. Summer Wisteria
A very attractive little deciduous shrub from East Asia, China and Japan with arching branches.
Long, slender spikes of pink/mauve, pea-shaped flowers in summer are borne at the ends of the branches creating a drooping almost pendulous appearance. It looks rather Wisteria like but at ground level.
It will also grow in shade and continue to flower making it an interesting and unusual ground cover.
Its growth habit is to grow from underground stems enabling it in cover the ground. It is not aggressive at all. In frosty climates the thin branches may get frosted back to harder wood. It does not tolerate really hot humid conditions either. It grows up to about 50cm high. It will send up more shoots in softer sandy moist soil.
The medium green leaves are about 8cm long and divided into a number of segments.
Prune it in spring when new shoots are coming away to encourage stronger growth and new shoots.
The name Indigofera is derived from the Latin indigo 'blue dye' (from indicus 'India' where the dye originated) and fero 'to produce' (Johnson and Smith, 1986) and decora means beautiful.
There is also a white flowering variety available called "Alba".
Indigo.
Several species, especially Indigofera tinctoria and Indigofera suffruticosa, are used to produce the dye indigo.
Learn more about Indigo here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigofera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_dye
http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/indigo.html
Long, slender spikes of pink/mauve, pea-shaped flowers in summer are borne at the ends of the branches creating a drooping almost pendulous appearance. It looks rather Wisteria like but at ground level.
It will also grow in shade and continue to flower making it an interesting and unusual ground cover.
Its growth habit is to grow from underground stems enabling it in cover the ground. It is not aggressive at all. In frosty climates the thin branches may get frosted back to harder wood. It does not tolerate really hot humid conditions either. It grows up to about 50cm high. It will send up more shoots in softer sandy moist soil.
The medium green leaves are about 8cm long and divided into a number of segments.
Prune it in spring when new shoots are coming away to encourage stronger growth and new shoots.
The name Indigofera is derived from the Latin indigo 'blue dye' (from indicus 'India' where the dye originated) and fero 'to produce' (Johnson and Smith, 1986) and decora means beautiful.
There is also a white flowering variety available called "Alba".
Indigo.
Several species, especially Indigofera tinctoria and Indigofera suffruticosa, are used to produce the dye indigo.
Learn more about Indigo here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigofera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_dye
http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/indigo.html