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Tue, May 29, 12 at 16:35
| Hey Blue Lovers.
I bought the bottled gentian twice and twice if didn't come back. Zone 5 near Milwaukee. I want to try one more time, but I see there is a different variety "Blue Cross" that sounds more hardy. Does anyone have comments about either/both of them. One have a better color than the other? one easier to grow? etc. Thanks in advance. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Bottle gentian grows wild here, so I doubt it's a hardiness issue since we are a bit colder, I think. Check out the soil needs of the two kinds of gentians - drainage and pH in particular - to see if what you can provide is what they want. |
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| I find that bottle gentian is tough to grown in my area. I plant them with rue anemone. The rue anemone grew just fine but the bottle gentian promptly died. Not sure why, it may be the issue with PH and with sunlight. Paul |
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| Bottle gentian is easy to grow from fresh seed collected in October in Wi. If the seed dries out it is not viable. Bottle gentians like moist soil in sun or part shade. If you find gentian growing wild collect the seed fresh and put it in moist sand and keep in fridge until ready to sow, it needs several months of cold moist stratification to germinate. The key is never let the seed dry out and keep the seed cold. This works for all of the wild gentians. Bottle gentian is perennial where fringed is biennial and needs to be sown two years in a row to get every year bloom. I have used this in large prairie restorations and they grow like weeds, until the deer eat them, deer love bottle gentian. |
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