Dahlia tomentosa

'Storm Cloud' eastern bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Storm Cloud') is an award-winning cultivar of a native species, and let me tell you — this shrubby perennial is a total garden workhorse. You'll admire it from spring right through fall. What really steals the show are those medium blue spring flowers sitting on dramatic dark stems. The olive green leaves perfectly complement both the near-black stems and the rich blue blooms, and its size makes it an awesome backdrop for smaller summer bloomers.

Common name: 'Storm Cloud' eastern bluestar

Botanical name: Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Storm Cloud'

Origin: Amsonia tabernaemontana is a three-foot, clumping perennial native to the Mid-Atlantic, lower Midwest and Southeast, where it grows in wet spots like open woods and sandy plains. 'Storm Cloud' is a Proven Winners introduction that came out in 2016. Hans Hansen and Tony Avent originally found it blooming along a woodland stream bank in Alabama — they collected divisions, trialed them, and picked the best ones to clone. This cultivar won a Theodore Klein Plant Award in 2025 and was named a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal Plant in 2026.

Flowers: Rounded heads of star-shaped blue flowers open in late spring, covering the plant entirely and lasting over a long period.

Foliage: Not as fine-textured as Amsonia hubrichtii, this species puts out upright stems clad in long, narrow, willow-like leaves. These change from medium green to a nice, warm yellow color in fall.

Size and habit: 24 to 36 inches tall; 38 to 42 inches wide

Growing 'Storm Cloud' eastern bluestar

Exposure: Full sun to part shade

How to grow it: Like the straight species, 'Storm Cloud' is a long-lived perennial that needs some space but might take a few seasons to really hit its stride. Plan for that, or pair it with shorter-lived companions that you can pull out once it reaches full size and shows off its potential.

Those gorgeous dark stems make 'Storm Cloud' a natural for pairing with bulbs and other spring-blooming perennials. Early- to mid-spring miniature daffodils look fantastic alongside its emerging stems. Other great spring companions include the low-growing, mat-forming Veronica 'Waterperry Blue' and bugleweeds (Ajuga reptans) like 'Chocolate Chip', 'Catlin's Giant' and 'Black Scallop' — all of them echo 'Storm Cloud's colors beautifully. For a larger neighbor, look to the false indigos (Baptisia), whose bloom time overlaps nicely with eastern bluestar.

To keep this perennial looking neat and compact, cut it back by half after it finishes flowering. Full sun gives you the best growth habit and the heaviest flowering. It'll tolerate part shade, but it can get a bit loose and floppy there and may need staking — a peony cage or hoop-style support works great. Eastern bluestar is basically pest-free, prefers moist soil, but handles drought just fine once it's settled in. It can even take short periods of flooding, which makes sense given its natural habitat includes floodplains. USDA Zones 4–9.