Bottle gentians typically grow on the edges of lakes or streams, or just above the water table in marshes and wet woods. They also like soil that is slightly acidic. Rue anemone likes mesic or dry woodlands. It is possible that the conditions are too dry for the bottle gentian.

I have a gentian andrewsii, which is a bottle gentian, growing with hostas in a bed that is pretty dry, tho I do give it supplimental water in the hot summer, and it does fine. Same conditions, as rue anemone, which grows in my dry Ozark woods. You may have not watered it enough while it was getting established. It has take mine nearly 10 years to get really nice so they grow slowly, and I did baby it for the first three or four years. Now it is pretty much on its own. You could try again but make sure you water it well in its first years when the summer gets hot.

Don't think it's the water. It's been really rainy for the past couple of weeks. In fact, I have a few plants that died from being flooded. I was thinking that it was watered too much. I checked the soil and it was pretty damp. Temperature until recently was around 50's.

The soil has a PH of 7. I recall both plants like a PH of around 6.5. Perhaps Rue anemone is more tolerant? In the case of the bottle gentian, one of the plant started losing it green color. It wasn't like a bright yellow like you get from nitrogen deficiency, but more like it was slowly turning into a muddy brown. The other one also died.

Paul

My earliest attempts with this plant failed due to droughts. Last year I planted six clumps. This year all appear to be thriving except one. I have decided that some critter has disturbed or eaten those roots. All have had the same amount of water, although now we are very hot and dry here in my part of NC.

BTW, in the mts. they grow in full sun in hard packed but acidic soil. I think your Ph is too high for them...maybe.

I went on a walk last Sept. at Nachusa Grasslands. There were a lot of bottle gentians blooming at the time of the walk. In really wet areas. I remember the couple who were leading this particular walk, telling us all that Nachusa has mesic soil. With the exception of this one pretty big area we had to walk through that was extremely wet. Standing water in some areas. This is full sun as you'd expect a prairie to be. Rue anemone can't take full sun, nor can it take such wet conditions. This is the only time I've ever seen bottle gentian in the wild. I've seen plenty of rue anemone, always in the timber though. My thought is that's your problem, not enough sun. Enough moisture, not enough sun. I know nothing of soil ph. I'll leave that to the others...lol... :p

here's a link to bottle gentian at the IL wildflower site. You can, at the bottom, click on return and then find rue anemone on the list. It's a nice site if you don't have it bookmarked already.

Here is a link that might be useful: Illinois wildflower site