PlantFiles: Prairie Gentian, Lisianthus, Texas Bluebell
Eustoma grandiflorum

This is an excellent Kansas native wildflower. It grows out in the hot dry mixed grass prairies, as well as the even drier short grass prairies. It sticks out with it's spectacular blooms in late summer when most other plants look stressed and aren't showing much color. It's also often times called Russell's Prairie Gentian. It's sometimes listed under it's synonymous scientific names Eustoma exaltatum ssp. russellianum or Eustoma russellianum. Cultivars derived from it are by far and away most commonly sold as Lisianthus(another old scientific name). I'm not exactly sure why this plant is in the Tropicals/Tender Perennials category, because it is a hardy annual or half-hardy biennial(Much like the introduced Sweet William, Dianthus barbatus) in much of it's native range, which includes places as far North as Nebraska and Colorado(zone 5 or even Southern zone 4).

Though these are a Texas native (and so am I), I've only seen half a dozen stands of these in the wild in my life. Where they do grow, they are in thick masses. Beautiful!

The seed heads need to turn brown on the stem there are ALOT of tiny seed in a pod. You can start them indoors from seeds but it takes about 4 and a half months to get blooms. Buy plants for instant gratification. Buy plant with alot of buds with one or two open. They will bloom out and then seem stunted for about a month but then you will get new plants coming from under the original foilage and there will be bunches and bunches of flowers. In the picture of mine above I had just cut back some for a flower arrangement, and just look at the buds I left. It seemed they just keep bloomong and blooming. The foilage is nice too I was going for a slightly tropical feel in my little garden and the blue-gray-green leaves fit right in and I needed something of that height. They are a wonderful plant and come back if you just mulch real heavy. I decorate the front porch with hay and I start with that as a first layer over everything and then cover with leaves and other mulch. Usually everything comes back.

Eustoma grandiflora grows native in east central Texas. Bluebell Creamery, in Brenham, adopted this flower's common name. In the wild, it often blooms spectacularly during summer drought -- mostly in ditches and slopes where a little water may have accumulated. The wild variety produces tall stems -- very suitable for cutting. They hold up well for several days and maybe as much as a week in a vase.

The tiny seeds resemble ground pepper, when ripe and the sticky fruit splits open. Consider them a short-lived perennial, because individual plants don't always come back the next year. I wouldn't say that the seeds exhibit a high germination rate. They probably require some special soil condition -- beneficial fungi, I suspect -- that I have not successfully provided in my garden.

I live in upstate NY and I purchased this plant because I thought it was just beautiful. I have 12 of them in various colors because I had to buy that many to get just one. Because I have been told it is cannot survive the winter here I put mine in pots. They performed beautifully. Now I plan to try to take them inside for the winter. If anyone has done this please let me know how they fared.

This is my 2nd year growing this wonderful flower. Last year we had a drought and it was the one flower that continually blossomed all summer long. I had it planted in full sun and part shade, both the regular and the dwarf versions, in all sorts of colors. Just be sure to regularly clean off the dead flowers and water it at a little each day or every other day. I originally planted them to use as cut flowers, but I just hated to take them out of the garden.

Beautiful flower, but not the easiest to care for. Mine likes the shade more than the sun, probably because of the heat down here. They like plenty of water.

Pinching when young will help increase the branching of this beautiful flower, thus giving many more flowers.