Penstemons

Penstemons are so generous with their summer flowers and with their cutting-grown offspring. I have a number of regulars - Purple Passion, and Snowstorm, a bright tomato red variety, and a lovely soft pink.

Soft Pink Penstemon

I always have new cutting-grown plants ready for new planting spaces - the trouble is that by early summer all my careful colour coded labels have come off. So when my new penstemons get planted they are a mixture of colours.

Penstemon Purple Passion

Lately I have been strictly disciplined in trimming off the spent flowers. To my joy the big clump of Purple Passion in the Willow Tree Garden is reflowering in late Autumn.

In my garden all penstemons are short lived perennials, and after three years flowering they have to be replaced. They do winter over, though, without damage.

I also grow the low sprawling Penstemon Heterophyllus with smoky pastel blue flowers. It is a beautiful colour to pair with my namesake Mary Rose and I try to replace the plants every two to three years.