Amsonia Tabernaemontana, also known as Bluestars can be a beautiful flowering plant addition to just about any garden. They do contain a milky sap that can be toxic and irritating to humans, but otherwise get along well with many other plants within your garden.Gardens are a peaceful sanctuary for most, offering a litany of calming colors, shapes, and textures. Nothing is quite as calming as Amsonia plants, with their quaint, soft blue star-shaped flowers. Aptly called Bluestars, these dainty blooms sit atop long stems in fluffy clusters, adding a peaceful airiness to your landscape.
When these flowers pop up in late spring, your garden will be treated with the truest of calming blues. Spring isn’t the only time this stunning plant shows off though, adding interest to your garden throughout the year.
Amsonia’s graceful foliage is bright green throughout the blooming season, offsetting its lovely blue flowers. As the months grow colder, the foliage fades into a brilliant golden yellow, ensuring your garden sanctuary stays in tune with the fall mood.
On top of all these benefits, Bluestars are an incredibly easy plant to care for. This of course only adds to its peaceful nature and makes it an ideal plant for all types of gardeners. They look most at home in cottage-style gardens but will work in most garden settings, adding its dust of peace no matter where it’s planted. Amsonia plants are named after renowned English physician Dr. John Amson. He settled in Virginia during the mid-1700s and later befriended the distinguished British botanist John Clayton. Clayton was most famous for his works on New World flora and for naming this genus after his friend.
The genus is made up of a variety of species, with many only being discovered in the 20th century. Some varieties have even been discovered in eastern Asia and the Mediterranean. Amsonia tabernaemontana is the most common in North America, growing natively along the edges of wetlands and across forest floors.
One of the most recent discoveries is the A. hubrichtii, which was first discovered in 1942 and named after its finder, Leslie Hurbicht.
No matter the variety and the slight differences each holds, Amsonias make a great accent plant and are favorites for cottage-style gardens. Their soft blue flowers make spring feel even fresher, while its changing foliage keeps up with the ever-changing seasons.
Amsonias are non-invasive and attract a wonderful amount of butterflies and other pollinators. You’ll often see their soft blue flowers peeking through in butterfly gardens. They’re also relatively deer and drought resistant. As an added bonus, Amsonias are low on the pest and disease-attracting list.
The only downside with this plant is that its milky sap can be mildly toxic and irritating to humans and house pets. As long as you keep them away from prying fingers and paws, you’ll get to enjoy their beauty year-round without trouble. Propagating can be done in a few ways, either by sowing seeds or taking cuttings. You can also propagate by division, but it’s the most impractical and difficult method when it comes to Bluestars.
Propagating by cutting yields the best results and helps retain chosen species characteristics. Sowing seeds is second best, but results may vary, giving you a stunning Bluestar that has little similarity to the parent plant. Over and above that, propagating by seed can be a slow process.