Penstemon & other perennials?

I have been shopping thru the plant & seed catalogues and perusing my plant books. I really liked the Scutellaria (scullcap) plants I grew last year and most are perennials so I am looking for something different for the coming year.

Two more that I like are Salvia and Verbena. I have a couple of both and now, another plant has caught my attention ~ Penstemon.

Does anyone in Texas grow it? Which one? And please share your opinion and experience with it...

Please feel free to chime in with other plants you are maybe interested in too... I try to be open minded... 8 ) pod

Well, I am far from Texas, but I do have some Violet Dusk Penstemon. I don't know if there are any viable seeds on it now after all the weather, but I could check tomorrow to see? Let me know and I will check on them if it isn't pouring down rain still! :)

Misty ~ thank you for the offer. It sounds like a lovely color. I hope I will have something to offer that you might like in exchange. Or even if you don't have any seed.

Maybe you could send some rain too ~ LOL

You are quite welcome, and you can have the rain! LOL We have an empty house that has 5 gushers right now and everything is totally soaked! I will look at what you have, but if you don't have something I am looking for then I will just send them to ya! :)

Misty ~ How long have you grown this Penstemon? Did you start it from seed?
I don't have a trade list so please tour my journal and ask. If I have extra of anything, seeds, cuttings or plants will gladly share. Thanks, pod

I just started growing them this year, and they were plants he bought me at Lowe's. I will take a tour through your journal and have a look see! :)

Hi Pod -

I have penstamon. It grows wild around here and I dug up a few plants with excellent results. Mine is the Gulf Coast variety. I thought I sent you some seeds but if not, I'd be happy to. Just let me know.

I can't say how well it does from seed. I'll be trying that for the first time this spring. Just a notee - the seeds stink when they come out of the pods! Weird, huh?

WOW, that is a lot to look at! I see many things that I could always have! LOL
Let me try to look tomorrow to see if I can get some seeds off of mine. I have two, and are planted in two different places in the yard, so maybe one of them will be good for seeds! :)

Well that is good to know about the smell! LOL Then I will know that I got it right! HA HA HA

Oh, oh ~ I need to go rummage thru my seed stash ~ 8 0 ~ she says with a sheepish grin. I think you rang a bell ~ Kristi. Which color is it?
pod ~ spelled with a DUH! How embarassing....

BTW ~ I am so amazed the sweet almond verbena you sent is putting on new leaves at each node. Can you ever forgive me... on my knees.

Misty ~ what smell?

Smell ~ double DUH ~ Kristi I found your seeds YEA! On the bag all I could read was Gulf Coast ~ beautiful, native, seeds stink! LOL Tis only me losing my mind...

I just reread the above post on stinky seeds and am scared to open this bag. Man, you sent a bunch too! Bless you... pod

Pod - I think I was missing my sharpie when I was filling the bag. LOL. The Gulf Coast Penstamon is the prettiest lavender. Makes a nice clump of 2' flowers. Here it is:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55963/

Have you opened the bag yet? They smell sour. I had to wash my hands several times after cleaning the pods. :P

Hahaha....no need for apologies. I'm so glad the almond verbena is doing well. Have you repotted it? It will get VERY big! The bees love it and so do the hummers. I've only seen teeny BF's attracted to it.

Misty - good luck on your seeds! The pods should be very dry (which they probably are by now). They're hard to open and have to be cleaned with a sieve. But, I have so much fun harvesting seeds that I don't mind it a bit!

If they smell that bad I think I will wait til we have some water back to wash my hands! LOL

Kristi ~ I appreciate your cleaning the seed but could Misty send a seed pod without separating?

Nope ~ not brave enough tonight to open that bag ~ LOL

Yes, I potted the L. verbena up and am keeping it on an enclosed back porch. The light is not as strong and that is why it amazed me with new growth.

BTW, I will remember to invite you the next seed cleaning party I hold! 8 )

I think the butterflies and hummers are the reason I am attracted to Penstemon. I got a new High Country Gardens catalogue and they had a wide variety listed. They baited me I am afraid.

LOL Pod! You are too funny. :) I donno why I couldn't send the seeds unopened? I know when I did some Hollyhock and some Rose of Sharon I just pulled them from the mother plant and kinda smushed em between my fingers and threw em in the dirt. AND, they germinated! LOL I gave the ROS to my SIL, but her animals sent them to plant heaven! My Hollyhocks produced over 35 seedlings at last count. I got tired of trying to count all of them in the 5 gallon bucket! :) I still have a baggie full of ROS seeds if someone wants them? They came from my dear friend Shirley that passed away last week and would love to see them go to someone that would love and cherish them! :)

Thanks Misty. I have three in your ROS is the Rose of Sharon or Althea... Amazing how nature provides for its' plants isn't it... We think we need to do all this work.

Kristi, I'll give you a report when I am brave enough to sniff those seeds...

I wanna know when you are brave enough to smell them, too!!! LOL
I doubt I will use the Rose of Sharon seeds as I have no where to put them. :( They are beautiful, but we have somewhere around 40 trees on our city lot already! :)

Save them Misty. They will keep and work for future trades...

Guess I should add them to my trade list, huh. :)

I grow the Penstemon tenuis, Gulf coast or Brazos penstemon, it is lovely and it self seeds quite well.
The seeds do have a funny smell reminiscent of cat pee, but not very strong, I love the plants so much the smell doesn't bother me, also the seed pods are very hard, and i usually crush them with a hammer between newspaper sheets.
Here is my favorite picture of them.

How pretty! I can see why the Hummingbirds love them. That bloom almost resembles the Angelonia blooms.

Well, that makes it unanimous. The seeds smell. lol

This year I learned to use sheets of newspaper but have used a rolling pin to break up pods. Are these seed pod hard enough that a hammer is needed?

BTW Kristi ~ thanks for the PF link on these plants. The plant files make it easy to add to my journal. Those seeds are now "named" and journaled.

Anyone have a suggestion to seed in the bed or shall I start plants in pots?

I normally scatter the seed where I want them, but you might try some in pots.
They are short lived perennials but they do self seed.
Sometimes I just strip off the seed capsules and scatter them.
Josephine.

Thanks much for the advice...

Hope others will weigh in here with any variety of Penstemon grown and their experiences.

Or any other perennials they want to try this year...

I have 'Husker Red.' Not very happy with them, though. They are really pretty in the spring, but the blossoms don't last very long. The rest of the year they suffer with rust. This year they didn't bloom at all. :(

Haven't looked today (stayed on here WAY too late last night! LOL) but last I checked mine were still green. :)

Pbtxlady ~ do you think it rained too much this year. The indicators are it is more of a drought tolerant plant.

Misty ~ still raining? Started misting some here this am.

All ice now, even my poor Leyland Cypress is weeping! LOL
I know my oldest son said Mom, if you go outside be very careful cause the deck is ALL ice, and he is right! I doubt my penstemon is still green after looking outside! :)

Misty ~ it can wait. Don't get cold...

Not worried too much about the cold, but falling on my tushy! LOL

Well, I had to take the dogs out so I went out and cut some seed heads off, covered in ice! Will they be viable this way? I am letting them thaw in a bowl for now...

Oh ya, the leaves were still green! LOL I also had some other 'frozen' flowers! LOL

I have the natives Fox-Glove (P. cobaea) and Scarlet Penstemon (P. triflorus), as well as the P. tenuis that was mentioned already. All very nice and pretty. Of course, they only bloom during spring, but during their bloom time, they are so gorgeous. The first two are much alike in that they are xeriscape but appreciate the watering when needed. The can be in sun or part sun. And can get as high as 2 feet during the blooming cycle. Hummingbirds love them.

YEP, they stink! LOL I stuck my fingers up to DH's nose, you shoulda seen his face! HA HA
Pod- I attempted to take the seeds out of the pods, but they are so teensy weensy, I think I will just send the pods to you if that is ok? I am a newbie and donno much about saving seeds yet.

Pod, could be. All of my salvias sure suffered from too much. As I recall Husker Red is a fairly early bloomer, too, right when we were having all that rain.

Misty ~ seed pods are fine.... I will wait till I have a cold and can't smell anything before I hull them. LOL

LindaTX8, Thanks for some different varieties for me to research. Question ~ do they wilt when needing water? Do they easily recover after watering?

I do have a cold! LOL That is the bad thing! I really shoulda taken the camera with me when I stuck them under DH's nose! LOL

OH oh ~ let me find a clothespin to put on the nose...

podster, with the watering, they bloom more often and longer. That's mainly what I've noticed.

Great ~ during the time of year they will bloom, we usually see more rain. Whatever usual is... lol