Plant of the Week: Gentian

Blue flowers don’t come much bluer than those of the gentians. The intense azure colouring of their flowers turns heads wherever they’re planted, making these tiny plants real show-stoppers in the garden.

Gentians have a reputation for being fussy, but in fact there are many varieties which are easy to grow in the garden. The spring gentian, Gentiana verna, flowers early and prefers limey soil; while later-flowering G. sino-ornata blooms in autumn and likes acidic conditions, Give this diminutive little plant a gritty soil and a sunny spot and it will take pride of place in rockeries, alpine troughs and containers for many years to come.