They need to be black, that's when ripe. The seeds have a hard coat, so may need scarification to germinate.

Presuming you are talking about Baptisia (there are a lot of plants with the common name "false indigo"), the seed pods get black and then you can harvest them. Baptisia seeds also need a stratification period, and as already mentioned, a scarification as well. I germinated mine by putting them in a baggie of moist peat in the fridge for 40 days or so before sowing.

I bought mine having read it took years and years to flower....and have since heard it can get going fairly quickly. As I want more, I am keen to harvest seed but I am trying to avoid these long term and delayed germination plants....so, do tell - how long from seed to flowering, please.

I've grown them from seed successfully for many years via winter sowing but none have grown large enough to be planted out nor have they bloomed yet grown from seed. They're slow to mature but even without blooms the plants are elegant and untroubled by pests.

I tend to pot up seed-grown plants until they achieve a size that gives them a better-than-average chance of survival in my garden beds.

Winter sowing seeds allows them to sprout naturally when temperature, moisture and hours of daylight trigger their genetic code the time is right. Winter sowing provides cold stratification; the seeds don't require scarification. The plants are healthy but slow-growing.

Once seed pods turn black, the seed is ripe.

Mine self-seeds - I just transplanted yesterday a few volunteers growing under their mother.
However, I got mine as a small plant from the nursery and in just 3 years it became huge - here it is this year and the flowers reach to my chest when I stand nearby. Looks like it just loves my heavy black clay with lots of moisture:
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beautiful picture! I had two winter sown seeds sprout. They are about 5 inches tall and doing well in the flower bed.

I snitched some seeds from a Baptisia planted in front of a realtor's, and they sprouted fine without much hoopla, and they bloomed the second year.

Tony Avent: Fresh sown (meaning freshly harvested, sown immediately) Baptisia seed germinates quite easy and quite fast...usually in two weeks. Stored seed, on the other hand is difficult and slow to sprout.

I've tried it, he's right ;)

Ok, will try that. I do this often with primula seeds, Morz, but I sow them while they are soft and green (you have to smear the gloopy seeds onto the growing medium) - they germinate within 2 weeks whereas once they are dry and brown, they are already deep in dormancy and need the whole winter chilling thing. Would this be the same for baptisia? Purple Smoke has fat seed heads at the moment....should I open them and sow....or wait till they are sere and brown? Who is Tony Avent?

I'd wait until the pods are ripe, show signs of beginning to split open and the seeds are mature.

Tony Avent is an American Horticulturist, Breeder, Lecturer and Plantsman. He owns Plant Delights Nursery.

Cheers, will do.

Campanula, I have had a plain Baptisia australis for years and i usually deadhead the seedpods, but I didn't get around to it for a couple of years and they dropped their seed at some point late summer. Next spring I had maybe 2 dozen or more volunteers.

I bought a 'Purple Smoke' last year and had it's first bloom this year. Very pretty. I wish I had more room for more of these.

GreenGo - That is an amazingly healthy and full version of Baptisia! Mine is not in full sun so I don't get it that full and it flops without support, the larger it gets. That doesn't look like you are supporting at all, or is it invisible?

Aseedisapromise, your flowers look almost navy blue, that looks different to me too. Pretty!

The seeds should rattle in the crisp pod before planting. I have Baptisia seeds that have been in the frig for years and they always sprout. (I Winter Sow them.)

prairiemoon2,
No support at all - it seems very sturdy and robust on its own. It gets full sun and probably lots of water - I have a high water table in my yard.

Many Baptisias are from the south of the US and don't have hugely long periods of cold stratification periods but usually a wet summer and short periods of cold. so maybe cold/warm periods in winter are what they like, and sprouting immediately in the summer rains.. They don't much like my hugely alkaline soil. The B. leucophaea grows wild in the Lost Pines area 40 miles east of Austin. I drool for them. I never see Baptisias in gardens around here. I tried both with an established plant and seed. I neither cold stratified but I might have scared them. Getting them germinated was easy but establishing them was not. I might have been a bit too harsh on them.