Gentiana lutea

The Great Yellow Gentian is a break from the norm within the genus. This plant, as the epithet lutea indicates, has yellow flowers and is also the giant of the gentian family.

Description

A native of European mountain meadows the bold, paired leaves can sometimes exceed 30 cm in length in the garden. The flower stems attain a height of around 1.2 m in June. Whorls of yellow flowers arise from the leaf nodes, each around 25 mm across. Each individual flower lasts only a day or two as they are quickly pollinated by a myriad of insects but there are many flowers in the whorl so the display lasts a few weeks.

Cultivation

An extremely tough plant the Great Yellow Gentian will thrive in most garden soils that are not too dry and not overly acidic.

Give it some room within the border to appreciate the leaf form and give it a chance to form an impressive specimen plant.