Shining blue star, (Amsonia illustris)

There are so many beautiful plants to admire right now but the golden fall color of Shining blue star is really amazing.

I have a row of Shining blue star planted behind my front fence as a hedge. It likes full sun and moist soil so I dug a shallow ditch to plant it in that collects the rainwater coming off the street. It is doing double duty as a hedge to give me privacy from the street and by protecting my garden from stormwater run off.

Shining blue star blooms light blue in May, has lush green foliage through the summer and then turns yellow before dropping it's leaves. This plant produces a milky sap like milkweed so avoid getting it on clothes. Seed heads are ready to collect in late October when the thin pods split open and dark seeds that look like mouse poop fall out. To germinate the seeds they first need three months of cold moist stratification. I leave the plant stems up through the winter because they are ideal habitat for winter hibernating bees. I have seen birds peeling away the stringy stem to use as nesting material in spring.