Penstemon fasciculatus

Submitted by Weintraub on Sun, 10/03/2010 - 18:31

I purchased two tiny plants of this penstemon from the Denver Botanic Garden last spring. (Thanks to Mike Kintgen for collecting the seed and Michael Bone for growing it!) I stuck them in the ground in what is essentially western clay and they have grown and flowered beautifully! They are still flowering now on October 3 which is nearly time for our first freeze. If they continue to grow, I will have plenty of seed.

P. fasciculatus resembles P. pinifolius superficially and from a distance, but the size, foliage and flowers are different. I've attached two photos taken with my cell phone to give people an idea of what it looks like.

Comments


Submitted by Mark McD on Sun, 10/03/2010 - 19:57

Very nice, I like it, it does indeed look like P. pinifolius, sort of like pinifolius crossed with the slightly down curved tubes of Penstemon eatonii... the best of both.  I hope that it proves hardy for you, it does grow at fairly high elevation in Mexico.  Barbara, nice to have the visual follow-up showing this great looking species, glad you had some success.

Maybe Panayoti can tells us regarding hardiness.

To follow more about this rare Mexicon penstemon species, follow this link:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=294.0