Large clumps can be divided in autumn or spring. Light pruning can be done in autumn to prevent the bushy plants becoming too straggly but if a hard cut is necessary, leave it until spring.Īs noted, penstemons can be bought as individual plants or grown from seed. Apart from that, they are easy to care for but may need summer watering. Most penstemons are very hardy and long-lasting, though, as long as they are very well drained. cobaea is considered only half-hardy, Garnet may die in very hard winters. cobaea, the purplish-red flowers have no white in their throats. Garnet is another oldie, introduced in 1946, although it may be much older.
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Newer bicolours include the Taffy range (Strawberry Taffy, Boysenberry Taffy, Watermelon Taffy and so on), while the Cha Cha series has been bred for a more compact (65cm) plant that is claimed to be extremely hardy.ĭespite these modern beauties, it is difficult to ignore some of the older varieties, such as lavender-and-white Alice Hindley, introduced in 1931 and still popular or Evelyn (1934), with its pink tubular flowers.
If growing from seed is likely to yield more plants than you can cope with, there are dozens of individual varieties available. confertus) is a hardy species from north-west North America. Occasionally available in New Zealand, yellow penstemon (P. Others have simply appeared in gardens, including the popular Evelyn, found growing at Sissinghurst Castle, and Hidcote Pink. The latter grows in low rosettes 15cm-20cm tall and has such beautiful blue-grey blooms that it is known as pride of the mountains in its native Colorado and Wyoming, where its home is high desert areas.ĭespite penstemons being North American natives, most of the work on breeding named cultivars has been done in Europe and the United Kingdom. confertus or the unusual drought-tolerant sand penstemon ( P. If you are lucky, you may be able to track down seed of yellow-flowered species P. strictus) and another Rockies native, sky-blue P. palmeri), from the southwest of the United States purple-blue Rocky Mountain penstemon ( P. The main differences between the species are flower colour, shape and leaf form, but for the novice it can be difficult to tell them apart, although Penstemon confertus is recognisable for its lemon-yellow flowers tightly clustered on the stems.Īmong the species for which seed is readily available in New Zealand are the pale pink "wild snapdragon" ( P.
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PHOTOS: GILLIAN VINEFor gardeners, the appeal is the long flowering period, from late spring or summer into autumn, with colours mainly in the pink-purple-crimson group, plus white. Hidcote Pink was a chance find in an English garden.
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