PENSTEMONS #2

Last week I introduced you to the Penstemon family and gave you the easiest penstemons to grow: Rocky Mountain and Scarlet Bugler. Before I go on to other plants, I want to give you two other penstemons that have unique qualities and fill in niches in your landscape. One is a groundcover penstemon that does not resemble any other penstemon, Pineleaf. The other penstemon is the one seeded along I-40, the Pink Wild Snapdragon. Both are native to New Mexico.

Ground-cover plants give your landscape transitions between taller plants and rock or concrete areas. When in flower they make a statement of their own. They can take up large amounts of bare ground often growing 3 feet across. I will cover other groundcover, drought tolerant plants next week but this week Pineleaf Penstemon (Penstemon pinifolius) is our focus. Its name comes it’s leaves that look like pine needles! Flowers are the typical tube with lips at the opening that attract hummingbirds and comes in orange or yellow. The plant is 6 to 10 inches tall and 12 to 18 inches across. Because they are small, they can be tricky to establish. They are drought tolerant but during their first year they need water on a regular schedule if no rain. Along with most people, I have lost a few plants in this trial and error. If you have clay, place the plant along a slope to allow drainage and keep the crown from rotting. After flowering is done, the flower stalks can be clipped off to leave the Pineleaf foliage neater.

The other penstemon I have picked to highlight is Penstemon palmari also called Pink Wild Snapdragon. This penstemon blooms in early summer with fragrant, light pink flowers on tall spikes. Very Xeric and heat tolerant, it is known to reseed in very harsh areas. They grow 3 to 5 feet tall and 12 to 24 inches wide. I have several small clumps in my garden but the best specimens I have ever seen were along I-40 south of Grants. They were growing in soil blown over lava in full sun and looked very happy. This was one of many penstemons I purchased when I started my garden and I placed it to receive plenty of sun and limited extra water. It did well for a couple of years and then I noticed clumps of the plants and their flowers in other locations (without supplemental water). Over the years they have moved back and forth in my Xeric yard always without regard to water.

To get these to grow in your garden, do not enrich the soil and do not fertilize. They appreciate a little water in our two month or longer dry spells but will die if given too much TLC. Do not mulch with anything except gravel, do not water in winter, and they don’t like being crowded. They like to be able to wander so allow them the freedom to roam. The foliage is distinctive so you can spot them before they bloom – a gray/green leaf with little serrations. They like sandy soil best but if you have clay soil, plant them as I suggested in the comment in Pineleaf, you will have the best chance of success.

Edith Iwan is a Cibola-McKinley County Master Gardener who lives and works in Thoreau. As a Master Gardener she assists the County Cooperative Extension Service in providing accurate, re search-based gardening information to county residents. If you have any gardening questions, please call the NMSU Cibola County Extension at 505-287-9266 or NMSU McKinley County Extension at 505-863-3432