Gentiana sino-ornata 'Blue Diamond'

Autumn or Showy Chinese Gentian (a direct translation of the latin specific name). Western China and Tibet.  Award of Garden Merit (A.G.M.) from the Royal Horticultural Society.

Trailing stems to 20cm in length, bearing narrow leaves and solitary, terminal, rich blue, funnel-shaped flowers up to 6cm in length, with white stripes inside. Exact shade to be determined as a new seed sowing.

Acidic or neutral soils, unfussy, but NO lime. Sun to part shade, depends on your conditions as always. Flowers from February to March. 10cm. 

A little history form the Ballyrobert website: "The Scottish botanist George Forrest (1873-1932) first found Gentiana sino-ornata in NW Yunnan in 1904 and in the Lichiang mountain range in 1910. He was honoured with the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour in 1921, and the Veitch Memorial Medal in 1927, and was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1924. Seeds sent to Edinburgh and Ness Botanic Gardens first flowered in 1912."

Massed exuberance, photograph taken from Ballyrobert Gardens in Ireland. How I wish to visit!

Small plant :Jan Reurink Camera location29° 52′ 34.2″ N, 92° 31′ 09.6″ E View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap 29.876167;   92.519333, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons