Basically,yes. They really do like a lot of rain water when about to flower. And I mean a lot of rain water.

Oh dear Stera as Owdb says they really like a lot of moisture when about to flower… one of the reasons they do much better for us in Scotland than they do in the south of England. I'd cut the flowers off to save the plant putting any more energy towards them and get in the ground sooner rather than later.

Thats worrying as I don 't have any moist spots in the garden - sounds like another case for gel crystals. I will try to remember all the water next year.

I'm not sure gel crystals are the answer… Think about where gentians grow in nature. They start off under the snow in very damp conditions, burst through and experience a lot of heat before flowering in the early autumn. But during that time they get intense heat during the day and cool moist/wet conditions at night. It is extremely difficult to mimic this in a UK garden and we just have to do the best we can… these plants really aren't designed for our lowland gardens with their rich soil :(

I would have thought that ytou had a damp enough climate in Wales, Stera. I would suggest preparing a spot of ground by digging in a lot of humus and grit and this shopuld remain moist enough for the gentian.

The weather is usually quite rainy but not this summer! Our soil is as dry as dust at present. I only water when absolutely necessary, hoping the roots will go down deep and for the most part its working OK. I am trying to add humus but there isn't enough to go round. There was hardly any when we first started the garden from scratch and its quite a slow job. There is enough to scrape up a bit more though (some of which I was hoping to put on the veg patch) and I hadn't thought of adding grit. I'm a bit puzzled by the intense midday heat though as the instructions I read said they like shade from the hottest midday sun. I know we learn by experience but with a present from the family I need to get it right first time! So I feel I'm back where I started with a choice of two sites, one sunny until late afternoon and one shaded somewhat by a tall viburnum opulus but too dry for an astilbe. Oh dear.

I'd go for the sunny site personally, there is damn all shade on a mountainside in summer and the gentians all seem perfectly happy.

Right, that's where I was going to put it before I started dithering. Humus here I come.

Go for it Stera...

Right. Humus on, planting next. Thank you both. Have just seen an entry on google that says it will not flower in zone 8 and above and we are just 9 - so I am keeping my fingers crossed for next summer! (The plant was bought up in Lancs where its considerable colder than here)
Sue

I didn't think anywhere in the UK was zone 9!

Only just - there is just a little narrow bit in the extreme west. (9 is apparently divided into a and b and we are in the colder of the two, - 6.5. But we did get to -10 a couple of years ago just for two nights. The wind and rain in winter may well negate the effects, except that we rarely have snow and have less frost than many places. We have only had enough snow to lie thick and pleasant looking for more than a day or so once or twice in eight years.

We regularly get lower than 10˚C so I'm not sure what the problem is

As I understood it the problem was the site possibly being too mild not too cold. I forget where I read it now, sorry.

okay!

It died. :(

Sad :((((