I've noticed the price of seeds seems to gone up dramatically, with many of the main major seed supply companies, while just a few ( & I mean very few, seed companies) remain relatively cheap. To name one, Plantation products, which appears to include American Seed Co. The once vast products, of Thompson & Morgan, in the U.S. has greatly diminished after being bought out by another L.L.C.conglomerate and doesn't even compare to your British counterpart whatsoever anymore. It just isn't reduced numbers of seeds, usually given a specific stated approximate count. But prices from some major suppliers have increased & skyrocketed. Yes, it can literally end up being easier just to purchase one or two plants, hope they survive & produce your own seeds. While postage & shipping can be as high as $7.from some places, for just seeds alone! Meanwhile, recently looking at what it would cost to order from the likes of Chiltern in U.K., shipping is nearly double that! So, years ago I used to simply ask traders to order an approximately equal value, witH a trader & thereby keep postage prices as reasonable as possible, while attempting a fair comparable seed trade. (not always easy to do) As for Penstemon, some can be tricky, yet others can simply be seemingly an entire waste of time, (as I found with 'Tubular Bells') Plants are generally limited to just a few named cultivars, in this genus. Unless maybe through High Country Gardens... Feel free to contact me, through my page & I'll do the same.

Wild Seed in Tempe is the best, they will send you out whatever you want and have everything. POB 27751 Tempe AZ 85285 PH: 602-276-3536 FAX: 602-276-3524 Very knowledgable and easy to deal with. Highly recommended.

I just received this catalog yesterday....looks pretty good, reasonable prices/shipping and pretty generous with most seeds! Mostly veggies and 16 pages of several herbs and flowers. Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Garden Seeds

Leaves look right for r. nudiflora. Wise to be cautious. Bill Welch warns they're "nothing more than troublesome and persistent weeds." ... which seems a bit harsh. They will add a lot of weeding work within a typical flower bed or any neighboring lawn space, but have some nice attributes for the right locations. We keep some as host and nectar plants for several butterflies in an alley border where most of the seeds get washed down the storm drain. As ocgf mentioned, flowers don't last long, but foliage can pass as a very heat and drought tolerant ground cover. Responds well to mowing or trimming to reduce the weedy look. The photo shows a small patch we have in heavy shade at the base of an American beautyberry bush; it flowers only a bit less here than in full sun, so spreading volunteers still pose a challenge. This post was edited by bostedo on Mon, Jun 16, 14 at 1:09