Thanks John. That has been my experience with them too. Short live perennial, well drained rather dry and poor soil, at least for the species. That said my gardens have been at their prettiest when I have penstemon in them. I told my boss John that they are worth the four dollars even if you grow them as an annual. Never had much luck with nierembergia except when I lived in PGH. It bloomed all summer but was not perennial there, here for some reason I can't even get them to last long enough to flower. I have been told by more than one person that "Starry Eyes" is the best shot for a perennial one. I have planted ones that we start from seed for the past couple of years in late winter/early spring but they never survive long enough to flower

I've had this plant for a number of years and have never seen a hummingbird visit it, but that may be my bad timing. If you want to keep the red leaves look for seedlings with red leaves, and pull the rest. The only thing is, my one green-leafed plant has many more flowers. I'm not all that crazy about this plant. While its flowers are nice, its season is short. For a native south-eastern Penstemon I prefer penstemon smalli. It has a longer spring bloom, has put on a second lesser bloom now, and if last year is any indication will bloom again in September. Not that I've seem hummingbirds use it either, but I'm only one year into the smallii experiment. Another good point it that it seems like a decent part shade plant and may work in open woodland conditions.

Hello Duane(?), Lucky you to be able to visit High Country Gardens. We've been buying their mail order plants for about fifteen years and love them even if we haven't had success with everything. Over the years we've tried a lot of High Country's agastaches. Every time they come out with a new one, which is every year, we give it a shot. Mostly they have been dissapointing. Because they are at a higher elevation winter hardiness has never been a problem for us but the summers here are more brutal than in New Mexico and I've always found the agastaches to look more faded and wispy here than their pics and if not killing them it has kept a lot of them from performing well. That said rupestrus does good here and Desert Sunrise has survived last summer and winter and is growing like crazy now. My new try for the year is Orange Flare since both it's parents do well here. We've never tried Black adder but it's good to know it does well, Maybe that will be something for next year. Most of their agastaches are hybrids and have to be grown from cuttings but rupestrus is easily grown from seed which is how I got what I have now. At our old house I bought them from high country for I believe about eight dollars a plant although they've come down a little. I tried Salvia May Night at our old house but it didn't seem to like the heat so I gave up on it. There are so many salvias that love it here why waste time on one that doesn't but maybe you are having more success. We are trying thier zauschneria etteri this year with Agastache cana "rosita" and a russian sage to try to duplicate a look they had. At our other house we had a A. cana that was ok so I'm hopeful. It's always good to here what does good and not so good in someone elses yard to have some ideas about what might be good to try. Maria

Most people have amended garden soil and their yards are a cultivated space where some native species will have a harder time. Cultivars are more likely to be designed for the normal garden. The species I grow are matched to the soil that I have. I have crappy caliche soil or a calcarious rubble with leaf litter on top under the trees. I understand that a native cultivar might be more suited to the amended and irrigated garden that most people have. Maybe the cultivars do not seed out as much as some native species. I am not a purist but my garden is a pretty hard situation. The species of my area are better suited to it. I also live surrounded by large tracts of unweeded land so I am careful of what I introduce. Even they will take the nose dive. So it goes. I grow most of my natives from seed. I might buy one or three plants of an un known to me plant and plant them in three different situations and collect the seed from the survivors. Mostly, I get seeds from friends that collect in areas around me. The nursery near me will by unusual natives from odd growers around me and sell them once the spring rush is over and they have space on their shelves.. It is about time that I visit them and keep an eye out for that unusual native. Last year I got some Silphium albiflora and Mojave milkweed from them. The year before, I got some ascepias texana. Unfortunately I had to keep them alive through our brutal summers and plant them out in the fall. Summers are brutal and impossible to plant when the plants go out on sun blasted screes.