This Month in the Garden (September 2009)

This blue “bud” is actually the mature blossom of the bottle gentian (Gentiana andrewsii).  A wildflower native to the Eastern parts of the U.S. and Canada, bottle gentian usually grows in fertile, black prairie soils and flood plains but it will thrive in moist garden soil in full or partial sun.

The gentian flower remains closed to small flies and pollinators.  Only the bumblebee, also a North American native) is strong enough to push the blossom open and collect its pollen and nectar.

Like many wildflowers, bottle gentians are disappearing in the wild, primarily due to wetland loss.  It grows well in home gardens, however, and will bloom for three or four weeks, adding its brilliant blue to the autumn hues of the rudbeckias, goldenrods and grasses of the late summer garden.

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