UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Burnaby, BC
Posts: 6,929
Regarding a source for the plant, it depends on where you're from. Beaver Creek Greenhouses did carry it in British Columbia, this year, but it seems like they are sold out.
In North America, a quick search on Google shows that Paradise Gardens Rare Plant Nursery in Idaho sells it, although it seems all gentians are sold out for 2003. Wrightman Alpines in Ontario also lists it in its 2003 catalogue.
UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Posts: 878
Interspecific hybrids (denoted by an x in the scientific name between the genus and the specific epithet), rarely breed true from seed. Often, seed from hybrid plants is sterile, but this is not universal. This gentian is propagated vegetatively (by cuttings or divisions).
The Shop in the Garden does carry seeds of many different plants from the garden and may even have seed of this or related gentians, but such seed is "open-pollinated" and could easily be hybrid seed; that is, it may not grow up to be exactly like the maternal parent. For the shop's contact information, see this link.
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Douglas Justice
Associate Director
Curator of Collections
