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Palmer's Penstemon
Penstemon palmeri
Regular price
$12.79
Sale price
$12.79
Regular price
$15.99
per Plant - 5" Deep Pot
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Save
20%
Zones
4-9
ZONES
4-9
|
Good to grow! Zone
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Description
4-5' tall x 24" wide (seed propagated). This is a very heat tolerant beardtongue, native to NM and AZ. One of the few fragrant Penstemons, it blooms with gigantic spikes of large, light pink flowers in early summer. Distinctive gray foliage. Must be grown in sandy or gravelly soils, not in tight clay. Not suited to areas receiving more than 15-18" of rainfall annually!
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As soon as your order is placed you will receive a confirmation email. You will receive a second email the day your order ships telling you how it has been sent. Some perennials are shipped as potted plants, some as perennial roots packed in peat. The ‘Plant Information’ section describes how that item will ship. All perennials and fall-planted bulbs are packaged to withstand shipping and are fully-guaranteed. Please open upon receipt and follow the instructions included.
Perennials and fall-planted bulbs are shipped at the proper planting time for your Growing Zone. Perennial and fall-planted bulb orders will arrive separately from seeds. If your order requires more than one shipment and all items are shipping to the same address, there is no additional shipping charge. See our shipping information page for approximate ship dates and more detailed information. If you have any questions, please call Customer Service at (801) 769-0300 or contact us by email or chat.
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Key Features
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Water Tolerance
Bloom Time
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Additional information
Mature Height
Mature Spread
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Awards
Native To
Growing Zones
Neonicotinoid Free
Can Send To PO Box
No
Overall rating: 4.6363635 / 5 from 11 reviews.
AI Generated Review Summary
Summary topics
Review topics: ["look","water","plant","winter","variety","flowers"].
Review highlights
Reviews
Already blooming
"Palmer's plant is already blooming less than a month after delivery!! Have been purchasing from HCG for several years and am always very pleased with them in every respect."
A divine redolence
"This plant smells so dang good, incredibly sweet, but not overpowering, a grouping of 3 or more plants makes the fragrance even stronger. Sometimes people stop to marvel at my garden, given I'm the only one with a large garden in my neighborhood, and when people stop and I happen to be outside, I always have to tell them to go smell the Penstemon palmeri 😂 I can't help it. The flowers are beautiful, and the foliage is also very attractive with that glaucus blue color. Such a showy plant. Plant this if your in the region it grows(which is most of the west)."
Happy, healthy plants
"I'm so excited to have Palmers penstemon in my garden! I'm always hesitant to order plants online but these were beautifully, individually wrapped and look quite happy. Can't wait to get them in the ground and watch them flourish 🥰"
Not growing
"Looks healthy but hasn't grown a bit"
Super Plant
"Really easy to grow and very hardy. Deer and rabbits ignore it. I just popped it in the ground with a little starter fertilizer. After giving it a large dose of water when I planted it didn't water it again for 2 weeks. It looks great and has put on a lot of new growth."
Very pretty creature!
"This plant is doing well. It didn't bloom this first year but it is green and healthy. Looking forward to seeing it develop!"
Very hardy, Exquisitely fragrant
"So first I wanna say that I read the other review that says these don't transplant well- I disagree. I do some landscaping for a few neighbors and like to use this plant in less used areas because of its drought tolerance and willingness to reseed. I've purchased and planted I think about 18 of these now from HCG and I've never lost a single one of these on transplant. I've actually only ever lost one the first year, and it was a fall planted one where the winter low was about -26 and this was the only one out of 6 that died plus I was sent a replacement promptly in the spring. No transplant issues here. This plant does get quite large racemes(flower stalks that mature from the bottom up), and they can easily get floppy in wet years like the one we're having here(that's my only real negative). I don't think it's quite as showy as some of other penstemons I've grown, nor do I see pollinators swarm it like some others, but the fragrance… impeccably aromatic! Like a chokecherry in the spring, I can usually easily smell these from about 5 feet away, even if they only have a single flower stalk up. If you like fragrant flowers, and live in the dry west, this would be one of the first plants I would recommend!"
Lived and thrived over brutal winter
"I have a slope on the back of my property that is too steep to water or take much care of. It receives full blasting sun about 100 degrees in the summer, extremely intense winds with gusts up to 50mph, and snow with cold winters. Oh and soil that is basically just sand and rocks. I've been experimenting to find plants that can survive these conditions without supplemental water so I can start landscaping the slope, and this one is a winner! I planted it in October with nothing special, right at the top of a hill with blasting winds. No water, no mulch, just put it in the ground. And we just had a record breaking snowy winter. It has stayed evergreen throughout and looks just as happy as can be and incredibly healthy! I will definitely order more as it is thriving in its very first year in a truly difficult to plant area. Considering how happy this plant has been in both blasting sun and snow and wind and planted in basically a sand/rock pile, I imagine it might not do too well in non desert type situations. I'm at about 4500 elevation as well. This one is a gem!"
Probably wouldn't try again
"I planted tis in a xeric area as it should have done well there. However, even tho watered carefully it did not thrive"
They bloomed first year.
"I have some Perry's penstemon and thought this would be as tall. Maybe next year. Perry's was pretty lethargic the first year, then the second year it exploded. Hope Palmer's will too. If not OK, it is a lovely plant."