This is the second year, we’ve tried to offer the Southeast US native (Arkansas through Texas) beardtongue, Penstemon tenuis, to miserable sales. It’s always fascinating what sells, and what doesn’t. Below is a photo of our garden specimen this week. This robust grower forms a tight mass of rosettes that give rise in early spring to dozens of 30″ tall upright stems, laden with light purple, bell-shaped flowers. Although a moist streamside/marsh native in the wild, Penstemon tenuis is adaptable to an array of garden soils, all but the driest of sites. We find the best flowering on plants grown in full sun. Penstemon tenuis is also a food source for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
This is such a great plant. Beautiful when it blooms but just as nice in late summer through fall when the seedheads and stems turn a dark red
This is a wonderful, somewhat perennial plant in my somewhat English style cottage garden. It pops up on any available exposed soil but is very easy to “edit”! Also, the bloom stalks can be cut back below this years seedpods and it will bloom again!