Early on in making my garden decades ago, I bought a nursery pot of bluestar, or Amsonia, at a native plant sale, and planted it in a border here. It has never asked anything of me, never had any pests or diseases, and just keeps delivering sky blue spring flowers and vivid gold fall color year in and year out, and looking pretty handsome in between. 

My very unofficial results with my Amsonia would not surprise today’s guest, Sam Hoadley of Mt. Cuba native plant Center in Delaware, whose trial garden team there just completed a 10-year evaluation of a range of bluestars. 

Twenty different Amsonia were studied over the trial at the renowned native plant garden and research facility, where Sam Hoadley is manager of Horticultural Research. He’s here today to report on the findings, and about how we can incorporate some bluestars into our gardens. 

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