what were you expecting ???

Hopefully it will survive the winter, but you're north of its natural range. If it does return in spring, please share. We don't have any native Penstemon in the east with hot, vibrant colors like the west. I tried growing a few western species and they hated my climate. The sell hybrid Penstemon here at garden centers that have deeper colors. They might survive 1 winter, but then decline and die. We do have an amazing variety of native penstemon here in the east all with their own marvels. I try to grow a lot of plants that are native up to 1 state away too lol. I hope they make it.

As long as planted with very good drainage, this plant is both very cold hardy (-20F) and mostly evergreen....at least the overwintering basal rosette.

fwiw, many plants are sold well out of their native range.....some even oceans away from their native continent. As long as they are given the growing conditions and climate they prefer, there is no reason they shouldn't thrive just about anywhere.

Wow, to -20 F. Amazing. Right now it's entirely evergreen and looking great; hasn't had any leaves turn brown or wilt. Note that all of our 6 or so Cardinal Penstemon plants didn't flower last summer; this is their first season of being in the ground. They even have a Penstemon society; found it when researching- who would've known? http://www.penstemons.org/index.php

You're amazed that a zone 5 plant is hardy in zone 5? I feel like I'm missing something.

I'm amazed that a zone 5 plant doesn't have it's leaves frozen in the winter and die back. For example lavender, coreopsis and others may SURVIVE the winter in this zone but they certain don't look healthy, green and vibrant like these penstemons.

I was going by the map the shows where plants occur in North America. I haven't read up in it's hardiness. I sort of got the impression you were growing it north of its range and that you knew it.

There are a fair number of very cold hardy perennials that remain evergreen in winter - bergenia, some penstemons, some euphorbias, liriope, hellebores, epimediums, etc. While they are able to hold their foliage through very cold weather, they generally need a serious clean up in spring.

Jay 6a. We're not all that knowledgeable but from the site where we purchased the Cardinal Penstemons, they say Zone 5....https://www.highcountrygardens.com/cardinal-penstemon-beardtongue. At any rate, we're hoping for blooms next summer and enjoy the evergreen foliage so far!

Also: a few weeks of cold temps is not the same as a full winter. The basal foliage might not look so pristine next spring.

Looks pretty much like my P. strictus/Rocky Mountain does right now, Steve. Many penstemons are at least semi-evergreen, and, depending on the winter, it should look "pretty good" for you most of the winter. Odds are that by spring it'll be looking pretty ratty and will need some neatening up!

I envy you with how good your plants look! I tried to grow cardinalis one time, but killed it--with love, in the form of water! I don't have any "dedicated" xeric area, so I kill almost everything that's truly xeric when I'm watering the non-xeric things near them. Yours look wonderful, and I'd say that as long as you don't start loving them to death with water you'll have some wonderful red blooms next year! Till then, enjoy them over winter!

Skybird

TH 11.12.20 @ 1330 MST

Not sure if this happens in Zone 5 CO, but what beats up the semi-evergreen to evergreen perennials in Zone 4 is lack of snow cover in the coldest part of winter when the ground is frozen. Deep snow cover they emerge almost pristine, poor/no snow cover and much of the foliage will discolor and burn, but they grow back fine assuming they weren't killed completely. I don't grow that species but Penstemon digitalis acts like that here.

I looked up the digitalis type. Amazing...these penstemons are almost like orchids in their delicate blooms and variety! https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=g590

P. digitalis is one of the penstemons with larger flowers, and ‘Husker Red' is a really cool variety with deep red foliage and wonderful large white flowers. If you ever decide you want to get one of those, the catch is that you need to either buy it in person so you can see what the foliage color is, or else you need to buy it from a reliable company where you know they’re vegetatively propagating the plants, rather than growing them from seed. Seed grown plants loose anywhere from some to all of the red color in the leaves, and the red foliage is much of what makes it such a spectacular plant. High Country sells it, and under “details” on this page they explain more about the propagation issues. P. digitalis is a penstemon that can take “more” water than many of the other truly xeric ones, so it’s one that I can and have grown, and I love it. Don’t have one right now, but would like to get one again sometime if I can find one with really deep red leaves—that I can afford!

https://www.highcountrygardens.com/perennial-plants/penstemon/penstemon-digitalis-husker-red

P. grandiflorus is another species with large flowers—just in case you happen to be interested in that! And all the penstemons are wonderful hummingbird plants, if you like to watch them!

Where are you in the Rocky Mountain area, Steve? Just curious!

Skybird

TH 11.12.20 @ 1910 MST

Husker looks amazing. We bought a lot from High Country Gardens last spring; I guess they have the types of native plants for the kind of informal garden we like. We do get hummingbirds AND cool hummingbird moths. Will consider grandiflorus, too.

Our garden is just developing and we can add anything. An inspiration is (fad??) is Piet Oudolf. Fad or not I like his style and we're following that approach...see below.

We're in Erie. You?

Small world! I use NOAA/NWS for weather, and when I pull it up, my “local conditions” come from Erie! I’m on the north end of Thornton, near 120th and Colorado Blvd! I haven’t seen you posting on RMG before, so just a heads up! Pre-covid we used to have two plant swaps—spring and fall—in the Metro area each year, and hopefully in a year or so we’ll be able to get back to doing that again! All the info is posted on RMG, so if you hang out around here you’ll see the threads when they come up! It’s a great place to make some local gardening friends, and pick up a bunch of free plants along the way! A lot of us are chomping at the bit to be able to do it again—but not till it’s safe to do it again!

What a HUGE area you have for planting! I love it! And, yes, hummingbird moths are VERY cool! Since you’ve gotten interested in penstemon, one thing to keep in mind is that many of them don’t bloom for a very long time, so, with the big area you have, mix up the species/varieties so you have more continuous bloom. Another thing to keep in mind as you decide where to plant the things you get is to keep them separated as much as you can by water requirements. That way you can have plants with higher water requirements—without killing the xeric ones, and, with your large area, if you make part of it xeric, after the plants are established they’ll very seldom need “watering,” even with our dearth of moisture out here! I live in a very ordinary subdivision, with a “typically small” residential lot, so I don’t have room to do all the wonderful things you’ll be able to do, and don’t have enough room to separate xeric from non-xeric, unfortunately!

Since you’ve gotten interested in penstemons—and since we’re not able to have our swaps right now!—I have LOTS of P. strictus, Rocky Mountain Penstemon, seed, and if you get over this way and would like to pick up some (porch pickup), I could stick some out for you, whenever. Or I could stick some in the mail too since seeds are cheap to mail! Have a LOT of lavender (English, Lavandula angustifolia – xeric) seeds too—and am always happy to be giving them away! Private Message me if you’re interested. It would be a way to help “fill up your big space” without spending more money—tho it would obviously take longer for them to “grow up!” (Both of those could easily be winter sown right now—either in pots, or directly in the ground.)

Have fun Garden Dreaming over winter,

Skybird

F 11.13.20 @ 1135 MST

Pretty amazing! I think some of the perennials in my yard are quite confused by that early blast of snow followed by nearly 80 degree temps here in Arvada.

Happy to see you participating in the little Rocky Mountain Garden forum. Maybe one day we will be able to have a swap again! Lots of penstemons show up at those. Skybird knows more about what will and will not grow here than anyone else I know.

Cardinal penstemons update... The base plants all made it through winter and came out in the spring looking super green, healthy and fresh; no mortalities and no dead or brown leaves. We had maybe 4 decent snowstorms over the winter, some with about 2 ft or more of snow.

Now they are watered daily via drip (since sprinkler system activated for season). Height is 4 feet or so and very pleased with them.

Beautiful picture!

i love penstemons! I planted my first last year (Dakota Burgundy), and was so surprised to see its intact foliage in the Spring, after being covered with snow for 6 months! I was so pleased with it that I added 12 more plants this year. Yours looks beautiful!