If you find yourself with nothing to do on a warm fall day you may want to get your self a lawn chair and find a patch of bottle gentian. Bumblebees just love this plant but in order to open this flower they need to squeeze into the opening. This is quite amusing and fun to watch. 

Iridescent blue flowers adorn bottle gentian in to late fall. The blue color is amazing and a great addition to a fall garden. 
 
Bottle gentian prefers moist soil and shade. It can take some sun and seems to do well in 2 to 4 hours as long as the soil is moist. In the wild it is found in moist woodlands and thickets. 

Bottle gentian has opposite leaves and round stems. It grows 1 to 2 feet tall. The flowers are found in whorls of leaves at the top of the stems. Deer avoid this plant, but they have been known to nibble on the buds. 
 
A very attractive planting and one of my favorite combinations is bottle gentian, red cardinal 
flower and blue-stemmed goldenrod. Other good companions for bottle gentian are swamp milkweed, palm sedge, royal fern, and turtlehead.