What can I expect from my Baptisia plant the first year (it didn bloom), and how do I prepare it for winter?
Hopefully you planted it where you want it, as Baptisia grow large (4 feet high and 6 feet wide) and resent moving. Keep it, as with most perennials, fertilized and well watered the first year. Like most perennials, it wont bloom the first year as yours apparently didn’t (the pea-like flowers appear in June). After tops die back in late fall you can cut them off, or leave them until next spring. When plants bloom, they produce attractive black seed pods that make a nice rattle in the wind. This is a nice effect into winter, although leaving seedpods on fosters seedlings to be weeded the following year–so your choice! They are generally quite hardy.
