Such a popular gentian: photo

The gentian has long been popular in European gardens. But the beginning of the path of this flower to Europe was not easy.

In 1910, the British botanist George Forrest brought back flowers that were not familiar to him from a Chinese expedition. He planted seeds in the garden – and after a while the plants grew, although the new place was clearly not to their taste. The gentian required a fairly moist soil, but at the same time did not tolerate stagnant groundwater. Limestone was also disastrous for her.

However, the breeders liked the gentian, and they started breeding new varieties. After many years of painstaking work, new varieties of gentian were no longer so whimsical and began to appear in gardens more and more often. Due to the fact that the height of the plants is only 15 cm, gentian is most often grown in containers or on “alpine slides”. Another familiar landing site is around rhododendrons: the blue carpet perfectly complements these beautiful shrubs.

Another quality that Europeans liked the gentian for is the timing of its flowering. The plant blooms quite late – in August. But flowering continues until frost.

Now there are more and more new varieties that allow you to enjoy the flowering of gentian even longer, almost without making any effort.

Source: magazine “Florist’s Herald”

Leave a Reply