I grew Gentiana septemfida for a couple of years, but it wasn't long-lasting. It may have been eaten by the voles or it might have been shaded out by larger plants. Considering the small plant size, it had large blue fall flowers and lovely fall foliage color.
I also have G. 'True Blue', though it may not be what you consider low-growing since it's between 1 & 2 feet. Long blooming, starting in July and still blooming now. It was upright the first year, but it is no longer in much sun and flops a bit. I need to move it and if more sun doesn't help, I'll give it some support since it's a quite nice plant otherwise.
I forgot to answer your conditions question. Mine have been happiest in sun, and my soil is moist, well-drained, high organic matter sandy loam.
Nandinas don't grow here. ;>)
This post was edited by nhbabs on Thu, Oct 16, 14 at 20:37
I have several Nandina domestica. The oldest one is on the east side of the house where it gets a lot of sun. The soil there is pretty good, but there's a lot of competition from perennials and from other, older shrubs. Perhaps because of the location, this one has been leaning or creeping forward - I find branches that are more or less lying on the ground, heading south and then growing upright some feet away from the center of the plant. I think this is one of the compact cultivars, but I don't remember exactly.
The newer ones are on the south side of the garage wall. They're in more sun, and the soil there is well-amended but somehow seems to get compacted every year; they're never watered. That garden almost never gets weeded, either, so they're competing mainly with weeds - New York iron weed, sweet autumn clematis, and grasses. These berry a little better than the older one, maybe because there are 2 of them. Those are the straight species, according to the vendor, Lazy S'S Farm, who propagated them on site.
I've had some unsightly die-back on all of these, but overall I like them - actually I love the foliage and the berries are spectacular.
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
diggingthedirt
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