New! Twilite Prairieblues™ False Indigo PPAF

Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicagoland Grows“ Announce Spring Arrival

GLENCOE, Ill. (Jan. 17, 2006) – On the heels of the successful Meadowbrite™ series of colorful coneflowers comes Twilite Prairieblues™ False Indigo, Baptisia x variicolor ‘Twilite’ PPAF. This extremely robust and vigorous selection of baptisia features violet-purple flowers highlighted with a yellow keel.

Twilite Prairieblues™ is a long-lived, easily grown, quickly maturing bicolor baptisia, selected from a controlled cross of Baptisia (australis x sphaerocarpa). Its blooms are long-lasting, beginning in late May and continuing through the first weeks of June. The blue-green, trifoliate foliage stays spotless all season. Plants can reach 3 to to 5 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide in three years and produce upward of 100 flowering racemes.

Jim Ault, Ph.D., director, Ornamental Plant Research, Chicago Botanic Garden, bred the Prairieblues™ series of baptisia, following six years in development.

“Twilite Prairieblues™ is baptisia on steroids,” said Ault. “It is a big and vigorous plant with unique flowers. We loved multiple plants in that cross, but Twilite stood up even after a violent wind storm.”

The plant is hardy in USDA zones 4 through 9 and begins blooming in Northern Illinois (USDA Zone 5) in mid-May, with a heavy flush in early to mid-June. Its lupinelike flowers are produced in erect racemes that extend beyond the foliage, creating an incredible floral display. In late season, the green inflated seedpods turn charcoal black, making a valued addition to dried flower arrangements.

Twilite Prairieblues™ prefers well drained, dry to medium wet soils in full sun. It has exceptional tolerance to poor soils and drought. These long-lived plants should not be disturbed once established. Twilite Prairieblues™ is excellent as a specimen, at the back of a border, or planted in groups in a prairie or meadow setting. Plants can be found locally in independent garden centers starting in spring 2006. National availability is expected in 2007.

Both the Meadowbrite™ series and the Prairieblues™ series are marketed through Chicagoland Grows“, a non-profit corporation of the Chicago Botanic Garden, The Morton Arboretum and the Ornamental Growers Association of Northern Illinois (OGA). The Chicagoland Grows“ Plant Introduction Program is dedicated to the evaluation, selection, production and marketing of recommended and new plant cultivars. Plants selected for the program have proven to be adaptable to the Midwest and are made available to the commercial and retail landscape industry through an international network of growers and propagators.

For more information on Twilite Prairieblues™ or the Chicagoland Grows“. Plant Introduction Program, visit www.chicagolandgrows.org. For more information on plant breeding at the Chicago Botanic Garden, visit www.chicagobotanic.org/research/breeding/index.html.

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Editors, please note: The Chicago Botanic Garden’s newsroom is online at www.chicagobotanic.org/pr. For digital images, contact Julie McCaffrey at (847) 835-8213 or at jmccaffrey@chicagobotanic.org.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre living plant museum featuring 23 distinct display gardens surrounded by lakes, as well as a prairie and woodlands. With events, programs and activities for all ages, the Garden is open every day of the year, except Dec. 25. Admission is free; select event fees apply. Parking is $15; free for members. On Tuesdays, senior citizens age 62 and older pay just $7 for parking. The Garden is located at 1000 Lake Cook Road in Glencoe, Ill. Visit www.chicagobotanic.org, or call (847) 835-5440 for seasonal hours, images of the Garden and commuter transportation information.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and managed by the Chicago Horticultural Society. It opened to the public in 1972 and is home to the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden, offering a broad array of adult classes in plant science, landscape design and gardening arts. The Center for Teaching and Learning brings the wonder of nature and plants to children, teens and teachers. Horticultural Therapy and Community Gardening provide nationally recognized community outreach and service programs. Through the Institutes of Plant Conservation and Ornamental Plant Research, Garden scientists work on plant conservation, research and environmental initiatives that have global impact. The Chicago Botanic Garden is accredited by the American Association of Museums and is a member of the American Public Gardens Association (APGA). In 2006, the Chicago Botanic Garden received the Award for Garden Excellence, given yearly by the APGA and Horticulture magazine to a public garden that exemplifies the highest standards of horticultural practices and has shown a commitment to supporting and demonstrating best gardening practices.

pr. For digital images, contact Julie McCaffrey at (847) 835-8213 or at jmccaffrey@chicagobotanic.org.