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To catch the eyes of passersby, the old gardening proverb goes, plant blue gentians.

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Crested gentiana septemfida makes a dramatic addition to your garden.

The crested gentian septemfida shown here is especially lovely in New Brunswick gardens. Its medium blue flowers are small and trumpet shaped, displayed beautifully as clusters on the ends of 20-centimetre-tall stems. The spoon-shaped leaves are arrestingly pretty themselves, and are a striking dark green.

Locally, the flower is often referred to as "everyman's gentian" because of the ease in which it fits into Maritime gardens. It is very tolerant of a whole range of soils, so even the beginning gardener can grow it perfectly.

Canadian gardening guru Patrick Lima once described how each plant expands to form a circle of about 30 centimetres across with stems splayed out from a central crown and turned up at the ends to show off their flowers.

He suggests that for a natural-looking display, you should plant this gentian in groups of three, about 20 centimetres apart, among large rocks close to a pathway where the striking blooms stand off from their neutral background.

Overall, the Gentiana family is enormous, with more than 350 species found throughout the world. It grows wild in mountain meadows and along rippling streams. Some species even thrive in bogs.

If you are considering adding it to your garden, remember the general rule that it likes a woodland soil with moist but well drained earth augmented with compost or crumbly leaf mould. Select a place that has the sun for at least half the day, or dappled shape. But it does not have to be in the searing sun all the time, and in fact, would find that too hot.

Other pleasant varieties of this family of perennials include the trumpet gentian, the tiny spring gentian, and the willow gentian which has long, narrow leaves resembling those of a willow tree.

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Garden tour lined up - Don't forget to pencil in July 26 in your gardening datebook to take part in Metro Moncton's Garden Tour. Sponsored by the YWCA and MacArthur's Nurseries Inc., the self-guided tour of seven select private gardens runs form 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Among the gardens to visit this year will be the five-acre site of Irishtown's Jac Pinot which will include a café, Aline Fowler's terraced garden in Moncton, the art-filled Riverview garden of Tony and Mien Rommens and the healing garden of Yuming Ye of Riverview.

Also featured will be the gardens of Cathy and Allan Lepine of Riverview, Kim and Glenn Steeves of Riverview and Bob and Maureen Wallace of Riverview.

The latter is a breath-taking cottage garden that always has something in bloom. Tickets are $12 in advance and are available at MacArthur's Nurseries at 232 McLaughlin Dr., and at the YWCA, 35 Highfield Street. Tickets are $15 the day of the event. Call the YWCA for more information at 855-4349 or e-mail ywcamctn@nbnet.ca.