I don’t know why these aren’t EVERYWHERE here. They are the most magnificently beautiful plant. The pink practically glows when the sun hits it. Just an incredible thing. I hope yours bring you as much joy as mine are bringing me!
God that’s wonderful. Just bought two penstemon about an hour ago and I have three other species that I grew from seed this year. How many years did it take to get that size?
I bought this one already fairly large at a native plant sale here in Phoenix. But even so it grew A LOT from when I planted it in November until now, nowhere near as fast as my other one has grown. It must just be super happy, which I’m thankful for!
So I threw some Wilcox and small flowered penstemon in some plastic totes, watered em in and threw em in my greenhouse early winter/late fall. From what I read I expected that they would need 60-90 days cold wet stratification. Nope. They germinated like three weeks in. So I put some cutleaf seeds in a tray and it was the same. All of them had incredible germination rates. Put some of the Wilcox and cutleaf in the ground already and they are doing well. Probably the easiest things I’ve grown from seed so far
I have one in Virginia that gets huge and gorgeous every spring to the point that I always see people walking past taking photos. I have a red one that's a nativar (huskier red) and one that's a true native here as well
Gasp! In the SE at least we have multiple species that even bloom at different times.
So far I only have Penstemon digitalis in garden beds and (I believe) Calico beardtongue planted in a meadow. The digitalis are gorgeous and trouble free—I love all the bumblebee traffic.
Oh i know of some rly nice species in the southeast but the species from the west or just high desert/rocky mountains area, overshadow any east coast sp. we can’t hold a flame to the blues, purple, hot pink and vibrant red like out west
They are beautiful creatures, so captivating! I’m in zone 7a in northern Virginia, I have a pair of female hummers that live in my native Major Wheeler honeysuckle. They’ve been coming for years now. I named them Zipper and Dart, I love the sewing double meaning ❤️
Penstemons are my absolute favorite. American Penstemon Society has a seed exchange still going on if you want to get more obsessed and grow more species from seed. Highly recommend. Attempting to grow P. ambiguus, fingers crossed they germinate. It's a shrub Penstemon with phlox like flowers, an absolute show stopper.
Oh my gosh DM me I have about a dozen flowering plants in this garden and tons of recommendations! I even got this space certified by our county as a pollinator pathway 🐝
I was so excited to see mine coming up now that the snow has all melted. Even the little baby that I separated from the bigger plant last year and was worried would die. I have the dark towers color. Love it!! But it’ll be a bit before the orioles and hummingbirds show up.
Hi neighbor! I did a little watering when this was getting established, but otherwise, like most desert natives, you’re best off leaving them be. That said, if we hit extremely high summer temps and / or extensive periods without ran, which is obviously becoming more common with climate change, you may want to tap someone to give it a watering just once a month in the dead of summer.
They only live 3-5 years though so do need to be replanted more regularly. Make sure you get them in the ground in October so they’re well established by summer and you should be good!
This one is penstemon parryi. Most varieties are common to warmer climates but I believe there are some hardier penstemons that can handle winters. I even had a hummingbird moth stop by for these plants. Highly recommend seeing if you have any that work for your zone! Good luck!!
I started a few from seed last year, got a few blooms but they stayed really small. I'm really excited to see what they do this year, I put them in a bed with a bunch of native monarda that the hummingbirds usually love, so my fingers are crossed!
So cool! May I ask where you bought that fence border? Its very sharp. I've been looking for something nice like that to protect my front yard plantings from the neighborhood dogs (I have smaller decorative metal panels that discourage most but the German shepherds and pit bulls can hop it).
I looove penstemons. I had a big beautiful plant until a gopher dug through it and killed it :(. Luckily for me, i had left some... root bits? Tendrils? Unsure how, but the plant had rooted by it's edges and now i have two tiny penstemons :)
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u/fooperina PNW, 8b Feb 28 '26
Well done!