Arturo, my orange P. pinifolius was originally in full sun (and my sun is intense) and thrived. A few years ago I moved it to an afternoon shade area and it got leggy and bloomed sparsely, so I've moved it again into the new full-sun rockgarden and I expect it to bounce back.

@nmoasis:thankyou: zoe for your info! I will place them right away in full sun, and perhaps after a week or so place them in ground. What I did find with most of my Penstemons....and I have close to about 60 sps. of them, is that they love leen soil , sharply draining sandy. A few are semi shade species and many are full sun species. Most are at seedling stage or young non blooming plants. I'm now moving ahead in understanding their growth patterns and hope to figure how to place them in the landscape. Some gardeners choose their plants for their display features. I prefer to study a genus that catches my eye and try to grow as many as I can within the genus: i.e Penstemon, Lewisia, Heuchera, Eriogonum ( all from N.America). So a place like Alplains is a fabulous lure to explore for seeds. Some people would define my type as botanically inclined...
Arturo
btw. I have a dear friend from our elementary/high school days in Buenos Aires living very close to Albuquerque in Corrales. He became an accomplished potter/ceramist.

Arturo, Yes, lean soil. I've killed a couple putting them in the wrong beds. I'm slowly completing a long-winded winter project adding new lean beds to my yard.

Since you are a penstemon expert, any chance you can ID this? I've posted it a couple of times but gotten no responses and can't find a match in the NGA database. I've had it for many years and would love to know her name! Large basal dark green leaves stay green through freezing winter weather and get quite leathery. Spring growth is narrower, paler, softer. Flower spikes about 2 1/2 feet tall.

Sorry for quality; I took these pix several years ago with a cellphone.



Thanks if you can help

Is it a species or a hybrid?

Truthfully, I don't know a whole lot about Penstemons, but based on the descriptions in my Sunset book (unfortunately no pix) I'm guessing it's either a P. cobaea or a hybrid, possibly one of the Mexicali hybrids. But good grief there are a lot of them. Seems like I always think about IDing it in the winter when the foliage is ragged.

I can rule out many because they bloom only in the blue/violet range. Others have grey leaves—nope. The dark green basal leaves turn purple-ish some winters. Growth habit is open and floppy, not compact.

Arturo, I just realized that I posted a pic in the container thread that shows the growth habit better. I went back to the original and included more of the penstemon. It's not the focus of the photo, off to the left

Arturo, please send me your Corrales friend's info. My sister is there, and I can get there fairly easily. I'm very interested.

Hmmmmm, interesting Zoe
I am out of town currently and cannot examine and research sufficiently to say what it might be, but it's not mexicali-like, as far as I can see on this phone...

Definitely not cobaea. i don't think the species variation ever gets into blue; it is mostly lavender-purple. Basal foliage is hardly wider, and it never gets as thin as your pic. I think it has the largest flowers of the genus. The flowers are not hairy like your pic at all, and individual flowers are on short stems. All this, and you can see the overall shape is different, too.

nmoasis said:Arturo, Yes, lean soil. I've killed a couple putting them in the wrong beds. I'm slowly completing a long-winded winter project adding new lean beds to my yard.

Since you are a penstemon expert, any chance you can ID this? I've posted it a couple of times but gotten no responses and can't find a match in the NGA database. I've had it for many years and would love to know her name! Large basal dark green leaves stay green through freezing winter weather and get quite leathery. Spring growth is narrower, paler, softer. Flower spikes about 2 1/2 feet tall.

Sorry for quality; I took these pix several years ago with a cellphone.


Thanks if you can help

Well as of today I'm very far away of becoming a Penstemon expert!...I would actually run away from being even suggested of becoming one in any field of my existence...
From what I see of the pictures, the plant seems to belong to the rosette forming group of Ps. Not that many bloom in reds. I've got 4 that have bloomed for me:
1.P.centrathifolius that has leathery blue grey leaves: Nope
2.P.cardinalis, that has large rounded basal leaves: Nope
3.P.barbatus, the flowers are much smaller than those pictured
4.P. eatonii, ditto

so that's what I can attest here up to now.

From studying the site provided by the American Penstemon society. (http://apsdev.org/cultivation/... )
There could be a group that might fit your description within the section Peltanthera, subsection Peltanthera (15 species): Of these, some are very rare, others have other than red/pink blooms so I'm focusing in those that could be:
1. Penstemon clutei (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...) It has larger blooms more pinkish that red. Of course colour nuances in pictures are very difficult to sort out.
2. Penstemon floridus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...) . The overall shape of the full grown plants is imho the closest up to now.
None of these are in my pot ghetto area . There's a third species that might fit: P.pseudospectabilis.
https://www.highcountrygardens....
Unfortunately my P.ps. is still in its pot. it will bloom for me one day. I'm very interested in this genus because I live in a very sandy desert type of steppe area. I want to generate low water gardens and this genus hopefully will provide some that will adapt well.
This much for now. Many interbreed easily so yours may even be a natural hybrid of wild forms from a nursery where you got the plant. Perhaps as you go through the APS descriptions ( specially the leaves) you will be able to pin down much better. Let me know of your progress as I will with mine.
Arturo

Rick and Arturo, thanks so much for your insights. I haven't had a chance to dive into the Penstemon website yet; hope to spend time this evening. BTW, I would describe the color as coral, more on the pink spectrum than orange. I know I explored the possibility of P.pseudospectabilis some time back and can't remember if or why I eliminated it. It might help if I kept notes on this so I don't have to retrace earlier research every year when I think about this!

I only know some of the species that survive here in Minnesota, so I can't offer any more insight, except that if you bought it from a big box store, it's most likely a hybrid and not a species.

Since your climate is so completely different from mine, this may not mean anything, but here, if a species grew that lushly, it would only last a year or two because it's being pushed to hard with water and fertilizer. For a hybrid, though, that could be normal.

Rick, not from a big box. Most likely one of two independent nurseries. It's not being pushed with fertilizer...shares a lean bed with yarrow, salvia & lavender. It's been there since at least 2016, possibly a year earlier, and I've thinned it a few times. I think you're right that it's likely a hybrid. It's really not a big deal, but since it has performed so well I wanted to put it in the database; that's what started my quest for ID. This year I plan to move it...I might divide and relocate into two different sun exposures, just to hedge my bets. Thanks for your help

Arturo, I was about to tell you that your possibilities didn't pan out, but one of those links lead me to this
Beardlip penstemon, chelone barbatus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Looks mightly close, with the description of the hairs on the lower lip, plus hangs out in New Mexico, plus has different cultiver colors. Worthy of further research, but...maybe!

...and damn it's in the NGA database. Several cultivars.



I really appreciate your help. I wouldn't have gotten to this if I hadn't been following your breadcrumbs

Zoe, I'm so happy that you finally made it! It makes sense ! when my P.barbatus blooms again I'll watch if mine have those tell-tale hairs. What led me off is the bloom size. The wild form ( species) have much smaller sized flowers but of course a horticultural strain can be artificially selected for larger size blooms. Also, having bought it from a specialized nursery would add the chances for it to be a cultivated variety. It would be fun to try out with some seeds and see if the offspring keep true. Not all cultivars are hybrids. Some are merely artificially selected strains. Since you've got a single specimen there's little chance of out crossing .
Arturo

Hello everyone! One of my current favorite rock garden plant is Campanula poscharskyana. It's so small and adorable, and is so bold !
I had a big clump at my old house, which cascaded over the bed in the front yard. I was able to take a few sprigs when we moved (I didn't have time to prepair plant cuttings and portions before the move) and those snippets are doing nice. I think the new house owner removed the original plant, thinking it was a weed . I recently got a more lemon-leaved variety ('Blue Waterfall'). Looks good so far, with the cute lil leaves.

It's in a little box made of bricks right now, I want to see if it can escape!



The first bloom of spring for me was a Saxifraga x Arendesii 'Scenic Red'.

I will wager that it can escape

I agree with Dirt. That is why I plant mine in the cement block holes. I haven't had even one of them escape from the holes.

Here is a new to me bulb planted the fall of 2019. I love this plant. It started blooming the beginning of February. The buds where opening up when the big ice storm came and deposited at least 3 inches of ice on everything. Thought that was the end of the plant for this year. When the ice left a week later the entire plant was untouched by disaster and went on to bloom.

Wow, it's beautiful

Thank you Alex. I'll try to get a photo of the entire plant today. My 9 year old grand daughter took the bloom photo.
Here is the other one that is blooming right now.