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| Gentiana cruciata 'Blue Cross' & Paris quadrifolia - 6 July 2025 |
Today I went to the unveiling of the tombstone for my friend Leah Patrich who died a year ago. She was in her 90s. On my way back home I did what Rosemary and I would have done together. Mandeville Nursery was on the way. I stopped. And there I found a treasure. There was only one pot of Gentiana cruciata ‘Blue Cross’.
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| Gentian cruciata 'Blue Cross' - 6 July 2025 |
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| Paris quadrifolia - 6 July 2025 |
I have written twice about the more usual gentian which is Gentiana asclepiadea. Rosemary adored all plants that were blue. I had first heard of this plant which grows well in Switzerland. As my other blogs will explain it all came about when I read a Chilean translation of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. And it was then that I knew where the colour gentian blue came from.
I brought my lovely new acquisition and when I was about to plant it I noticed one of Rosemary’s rare plants Paris quadrifolia. It kind of looks like a trillium but with four leaves. This paris had little flower with a blue centre.
It became obvious that I would scan it with the gentian and that I would write this blog.
And yes it’s her paris and my gentian. Two snobs together we were and somehow we are.