"' I always enjoy a good story, and the history of the blue false indigo, ', makes for good reading. This blue-flowered species was the first plant to be subsidized by the English government in the 1700s, the farmers in the colonies of Georgia and South Carolina grew it as a row crop for the British Empire to supplement true indigo ('). It was a good substitute, but not of the quality of true indigo, and thus came to be known as false indigo, or wild indigo. The false indigos come in three main colors—blue, white, and yellow—but new hybrids and selections are bringing this fine plant into mainstream gardening."