Penstemons (Beardtongues)

My favourite Penstemon, with the loveliest blue-mauve white throated flowers beautifully poised on long pedicels. Flowering as it does from late spring until winter it has been a mainstay of our double borders for many years. Read more about Penstemon ‘Alice Hindley’

Bred in the 1920’s and still one of the best of its kind, Penstemon ‘Garnet’ has been a stalwart of our double flower borders for at least ten years. Read more about Penstemon ‘Garnet’

I sometimes encounter plants labelled in this country in error as 'Purple Bedder', but this great favourite cultivar has been grown from the genuine strain of this Penstemon which has superior bright reddish-purple flowers over glossy leaves, from spring until winter. Read more about Penstemon ‘Purple Bedder’

With a delightful olde worlde cottage garden aesthetic, Penstemon ‘Thorn’ is an upright perennial with panicles of tubular white flowers tinged with deep pink at the tips of the lobes. It blooms from late spring through summer into autumn. Evergreen. Read more about Penstemon ‘Thorn’

Penstemons are easily grown sun loving perennials with few wants except dead heading and the removal of old spent stems in mid-spring. Penstemon ‘Mother of Pearl’ has fabulous flowers, pale mauve blue, blush and white with purple internal veining. 60 x 60cm Read more about Penstemon ‘Mother of Pearl’

'Rock Candy Pink' is a new dwarf growing variety of this Californian species which will produce showy light-pink tubular flowers from spring until late autumn on 30cm tall leafy stems. Read more about Penstemon barbatus ‘Rock Candy Pink’

This species of Penstemon has proven itself to be very tough. It is the only one which has found a place in our Dry Garden where it provides a wonderful spray of colour in the toughest of hot weather. Much-loved by our resident New Holland Honeyeaters as a source of nectar. Read more about Penstemon barbatus ‘Salmoneus’

I've grown this species from the Mexican states of Pueblo and Oaxaca for 25 years. It has got by with no watering at all these last few drought years. From a woody base metre tall stems carry red flowers with a hint of salmon, during the warmer months. Read more about Penstemon isophyllus

This species is native to northern Mexico, southern Arizona and New Mexico where it grows in Ponderosa Pine forests or on rocky slopes. Best suited to a rock garden it makes 15cm tall and 30cm wide plant. The thin leaves are like pine needles hence the specific name. Read more about Penstemon pinifolius ‘Mersea Yellow’