Plant of the Month/ October: The Closed Gentian
Just when we might think our gardens and woodlands would be unveiling no more delights - as cool nights approach and days become shortened - we welcome the closed gentian.
The brilliant purple flower from a very small family of plants is named after King Gentius of Illyria, the country where Shakespeare set The Twelfth Night. The closed gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) is found from Canada to Georgia along the East coast. The rare shape is not entirely closed - there is a small opening at the top of the royal blue flower where native bees can force their way through to reach the pollen that the bottle-shaped flower protects from the cool rain and weaker insects seeking the last food of the year. Nectar seeking insects are drawn to the closed gentians that sport a visual clue that the pollen and nectar inside has not already been drained: the opening of the younger flowers with full pollen are trimmed with small white dots, while older flowers are tinged with the same deep blue-purple of the petals.
Closed gentian waits for the year’s quiet edge
Although it is sadly not seen frequently in garden design, this striking native plant is not at all difficult to grow. The closed gentian is not as particular as its close cousin, the fringed gentian, which is only found on specific calcareous wetlands in western Pennsylvania.
Bottle gentian seeds obtained from a native plant nursery may be spread on damp soil where they grow from one to three feet tall; taller plants cascade to the ground in autumnal gardens as they bear the weight of the cluster of flowers at the top of the stem.
This grace and welcome brightness of this late-blooming native plant were perhaps best celebrated by William Cullen Bryant who wrote:
“Thou waitest late and com’st alone, When woods are bare and birds are flown, And frosts and shortening days portend The aged year is near his end.”
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