Oregon native Gentian

[Gene Mirro]

I saw an amazing sight, an alpine meadow filled with thousands of these 12-inch-tall, vigorous Gentians, all setting seed.  Altitude was 4000 ft near Mount Hood in Oregon.  Does anyone know what they are?  I will visit them next summer and photograph the flowers.

[Lesley Cox]

Hope you collected some seed Gene

[Ed Alverson]

Looks to me like our native king gentain, Gentiana sceptrum.

There is a bit of a horticultural description on the Berry Botanic Garden's 2004-2005 seed list at:

http://www.berrybot.org/hort/seed_list_05.html

Ed

[Anthony Darby]

Looks like it would be a nice addition to the rock garden. It is described as "one of the finest American gentians and is not difficult in cultivation provided it has moist lime-free soil. The seed offered is not always true, and often turns out to be from G. septemfida" (from 'Gentians' by Fritz Köhlein). I, for one, would love to try growing it from seed.

[t00lie]

Anthony--you just missed out !!!!!!! .

I received seed of this sps. last week from the Otago Alpine Garden Group ,(Lesleys mob), and sowed all of it 2 days ago.
 
A check of their seedlist a moment ago confirms it was wild collected Coast Mtns ,BC.------and yes i would have had enough to send to you . (crying face--still can't load face icon thingys).

Cheers dave.

[tonyg]

Not one I could grow here - how wet is your garden Tony D?

http://www.rainyside.com/features/plant_gallery/nativeplants/Gentiana_sceptrum.html

http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=&enlarge=8120+3181+4016+0056

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foliosus/1263627687/

[Anthony Darby]

Well, Tony. We measure the seasons by the temperature of the rain. When it rains in the west, Dunblane is in the west. When it rains in the east, Dunblane is in the east. I can grow cyps in free draining compost in pots and rarely have to water them. My next door neighbour had an island bed with a ceanothus in it (he prunes the flower buds off before flowering every year). The bed was full of snowdrops, species tulips and alliums. Frequent use of the hoe means that for two years there has been none visible. He does, however, have two lovely clumps of self-seeded rush (Juncus sp.), a bog plant, in his herbaceous border, which he carefully hoes round.

[tonyg]

Hmm - we don't get to choose our neighbours but at least mine dont make me want to

[Gene Mirro]

I have enough extra seed to share with a few people.  If you want some, please email me.

[Anthony Darby]

I'd love some seed Gene, but your email address is 'hidden'.

[Paul T]

Anthony,

If you go to the bottom of the profile there is an option to send the person a personal message (PM).  Most forums have some form or other of the same thing.  It's effectively an email, but it is done via the SRGC site instead of via normal email.  When you send one of these the person gets a notification within their normal email as well, so that they know a message has been received.  Without that notification I'd never know when I had an SRGC PM because I never notice the little (1) next to the "My Messages" bit in the headings of the SRGC site.  Does that help?

[Ed Alverson]

Now that your horticultural appetites have been whetted, I might mention that Gentiana sceptrum has a fairly wide ecological amplitude across its geographic range.  While most typically it grows in coastal bogs, it also occurs in montane meadows (such as Gene's locality).  In addition, it grown in the Willamette Valley near Eugene in the clay soil of natural meadows that are quite wet in the winter and spring but become very dry in the summer.  So those of you in a temperate climate with a mediterranean edge (summer high temps averaging in the low 80's, with very little rainfall in July or August) might also have a chance to succeed with this one, especially on clay soil. 

-Ed

[Anthony Darby]

Silly me. Forgot about that. Thanks Paul.