Download Raising Penstemons in Montana

LIVING WITH PENSTEMONS
Myrtle Hebert; part 3 edited by Robin Lodewick
Hebert, Myrtle. 1980. Bulletin of the American Penstemon Society 39(2):3-12.
This is the third and last section of Myrtle Hebert's reminiscences of Penstemons. Only her
original notes were on paper at the time she died so suddenly and sadly for all of us last June.
Mable Youderian, Myrtle 's daughter, helped by adding her memories and by checking dates. I
have done some editing and added a few things from letters.
Of course there are gaps that only Myrtle could have filled, but I think we will all be happy to
find so much of her late? experiences here.
At the end of Part 2, Myrtle's husband, Will Hebert, had just retired, and they had moved from
Denton, Montana, to Elma, a small town at the base of the Olympic Peninsula. Several of the Hebert 's
children lived on the west coast, and they wanted to live near them, but this meant adapting to an
entirely new climate.
The house at Elma stood on a half-acre of land beside a tree-lined street. A steep gravelly bank
formed the back yard. This cutbank, open to whatever sun there was and with drainage that was
almost too good in summer, was Myrtle's main penstemon bed from 1954 to 1970.
Montana had dry, windswept, alkaline soil, severe winters and hot summers, with only 12-15"
of rainfall a year, most of it coming as heavy winter snow cover. In Washington we found a mild and
very wet climate with approximately 80" of rain that drizzled down day after day. Sunshine was
lacking in winter, and soil was very acid and loose in contrast to the gumbo at Denton.
There was much for me to learn. The first lesson was that the penstemons I had grown at Denton
could not endure Washington's humidity and high rainfall after the dry air of their native Midwest
and mountains.
The second lesson was a happier one. Countless new species of penstemon were native to the
west coast and happy there. An entirely new section of the genus opened up for gardening and
learning.
Subgenus Dasanthera
Perhaps the outstanding penstemons in western Washington are the shrubby Dasantheras; in
time I collected many of them. P. fruticosus, in type form, is quite rangy with large lavender flowers
and the evergreen serrate leaves common to Dasantheras. Its ssp. scouleri has more narrowly
lanceolate leaves, evenly serrate, and a neater habit of growth. The other ssp. serratus is a dwarf from
the Wallowa Mountains, daintier in every feature.
P. davidsonii comes in at least three forms. The one I knew first was the type, with larger leaves
than ssp. menziesii, which is tiny and alpine. The extra-small-leaved form serphyllifolius makes a
bushier, less creeping plant. All have lavender flowers, but one (the type) has entire leaves, another
(ssp. menziesii) serrate leaves.
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P. rupicola is perhaps the loveliest Dasanthera, with very large pink or red flowers topping low
mats of fleshy, wee, sedum-like leaves in light-green marbled tones. I never succeeded in growing the
choice white forms of either P. davidsonii menziesii or P. rupicola.
P. cardwellii did extra well for me, both the type lavender form and the charming white 'John
Backer'. The latter can be distinguished as a seedling by the light apple-green color. It comes true
from seed.
P. newberryi, from the high California mountains, grew with fairly consistent results, but was not
quite content at sea level. Its bright' red corollas are slightly different in shape from the usual fat
Dasanthera ones. The green foliage often, if not always, shows a tinge of
red on the margins.
I did not succeed with P. barrettiae, a native of the Columbia Gorge in spite of repeated
trials, possibly because of too much shade and too little a i r circulation.
Dasantheras hybridize wildly among themselves. I grew plants showed traces of P. lyallii and
ellipticus, but were not really those I had seen in the wild. One hybrid I prized highly had a
compact but robust habit of growth and large deep purple flowers I suspected was P. ellipticus, but
could only guess.
Subgenus Penstemon Section Procerus
From the Procerus section of the extensive Penstemon family grew the following: P.
procerus, one rather tall, scraggly plan thrifty but not too pretty, the flowers small and deep blue; and
a white form was similar.
P. confertus, in the dwarf Kittitas form, was delightful, with flowers from deep cream to yellow
-- far superior to the common type.
P. peckii: a. miniature in plant and bloom, but full of wee colored flowers.
One outstanding plant of P. globosus produced a wide, foot-tall bush with several stalks of vivid
blue flowers, exceptionally large for a Procerus. Each stem had two or three rings of bloom, always
topped by one big cluster. This was my favorite Procerus.
P. euglaucus, from the nearby foothills, had thick grayish foliage and bright blue corollas,
noticeably larger than those in the Proceri section.
Subgenus Penstemon Section Penstemon Subsection Humiles
In the Humiles section, I grew P. wilcoxii, the tall pale form from Montana with linear, sparsely
toothed leaves of light green, flowers a good blue and white-throated.
P. subserratus came up a nice blue; it was rather dwarf and with thick spikes of bloom.
P. humilis ssp. brevifolius lasted briefly without much result while P. ovatus thrived—one of the
more robust kinds in its section, reliable, and generous with deep blue flowers.
Eastern Penstemons
The Washington garden was the only place where any of the eastern penstemons grew
successfully for me, but quite a few flourished there.
P. digitalis produced 3 ½ foot stalks with nice bloom, but they flopped badly from too much
shade and rain. Much more attractive plant of 'Rose Queen1 which may have been a P. calycosus
cross. It was a foot shorter and stood upright with glossy, bronzy-green ovate leaves, serrate, and
uniform pale pink corollas. Unfortunately, it was not a perennial as P. digitalis was.
P. hirsutus grew quite well, though not as well as in its native east, the purple and white of the
tube and lips being muddier. I bloomed the pure white form one year. It was very attractive, with
conspicuous yellow anthers accenting the throat, but as it died out over winter the display was for one
year only.
P. pallidus bloomed also the same year, looking quite like the white hirsutus, but the white was
not as clear.
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P. brevisepalus [considered a synonym of P. canescens Ed.]gave me a single plant which
bloomed, but sparsely, not enough to describe.
P. smallii was, I think, my favorite of the Easterners that I grew. It was an individualist, never
coming up where I planted it, but appearing without warning in unexpected places. One of the
happiest of these was among a planting of young lilies. The lilies bloomed mostly in soft yellow with
a few whites. The pink of the penstemon, with its abundant serrate leaves in soft green, made the
perfect contrast in a really pleasing border. There is much variation in P. smallii in the deepness of
color, in flower shape, and in foliage.
P. serrulatus, native to the hills near Elma, grew like a weed and bloomed lavishly in light and
dark blue, a pale pink, and my favorite, a pure white. The plants were 2% feet tall, long blooming and
reliable.
Smaller Penstemon Sections
With the smaller Penstemon sections, I had varying degrees of success. P. crandallii and xylus
[now considered a synonym for P. crandallii Ed.]in Section Ericopsis bloomed well one year, but
winter wet took them. P. crandallii had light blue, upfacing flowers and needle-like leaves. P. xylus
[now considered a synonym for P. crandallii Ed.], only a couple of inches high, had black-green
needles and wee flowers of midnight blue--an exquisite thing from Dr. Worth's collection, secured in
the high mountains of eastern Utah.
P. pinifolius, also with needle-like leaves and widespread red flowers floating above them like
butterflies, bloomed sparingly but stayed with me for many years.
P. deustus came up only in an uninspiring scraggly form with dingy white flowers though rather
nice foliage. Much more attractive is the ssp. heterander which is a more compact and neater plant
with blooms of glistening pure white. In another garden, I saw what was possibly P. deustus
variabilis, sometimes listed as a separate species. This plant made a low spreading mound of deeply
serrate leaves and small cream-colored flowers with maroon penciling—quite nice.
Of the Mexican species, several thrived in varying degrees. P. kunthii, with its flowers of an odd
garnet-maroon shade, did well as did the larger and more spreading P. campanulatus with its flowers
varying from blue to lavender to purples, and one pure pink.
Less robust and more tall and lanky was P. filisepalus [Penstemon Fasciculatus Fasciculi, found
in Chihuahua MX Ed.]. It bears narrow tubular corollas in either bright scarlet or blood red. I had
plants of both colors, quite distinct. Unfortunately, they interbred and the seedlings did not come true.
P. hartwegii is a beautiful thing with huge bells, the throat white, the lips vividly red, and the line
of demarcation sharp and distinct. This species has been used widely in hybridization to develop
nursery strains, but it proved not hardy in our mild Pacific climate, lasting only one year.
Hybrids
The hybrids I tried at Elma proved to be different in effect and in cultural demands from the
natives, requiring more watering and needing less drainage. (See Part 2 for a listing of these hybrids.)
I also experimented with some of the so-called 'Keckii', or Penstemon "stepchildren," from
California. One year I bloomed P. cordifolius[ Keckiellia cordifolia. Genus Keckliellia is a close
relative of Genus Penstemon Ed.], a trailer with fuchsia-like leaves and large gaping flowers. Mine
was a white one and short-lived.
P. antirrhinoides [Keckliellia antirrhinoides. Genus Keckliellia is a close relative of Genus
Penstemon Ed.]also lived for one .year but did not bloom. It made round, bushy clumps, densely
clothed with very small linear green leaves. It too succumbed to our wet February.
My other try was with P. breviflorus ssp. glabrisepalus, a funny and rather inconspicuous
willowy shrub that each summer strung little gaping whitish flowers, lined with red markings, at
intervals along the sparsely-leaved branches—not really pretty, but I grew attached to it as it never
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failed to do its best with no attention whatever.
Species seen but not grown
Other species seen, but not grown, during those years include P. richardsonii, which has deeply
cut leaves, reddish to bluish flowers, and a distinguishing odor.
P. nemorosus (the "woods Penstemon"), a native of the Cascade foothills and the Coast Range,
usually grows upright as much as 2 feet tall in the forest, but sometimes I saw its reddish flowers
trailing down over the face of a rocky ledge where it was very showy. P. richardsonii rather liked
rocks too.
P. corymbosus,[Keckliella corymbosa. Genus Keckliellia is a close relative of Genus Penstemon
Ed.] from California, is a shrubby sort from Section Hesperothamnus [this may be a section which
was subsumed into the Genus Keckliella Ed.]with brick red flowers. I failed dismally at growing it,
but it flourishes in the Arboretum grounds in Seattle.
P. pruinosus, a Humiles from the drier areas of eastern Washington, makes a compact mat with
blue flowers and the pubescent blue-grey foliage of the drylands.
P. anguineus that I saw only once in the mountains of southern Oregon was a neat 18" plant with
blue to lavender flowers, if memory serves me. And once only I saw P. rattanii, with really large
flowers of reddish maroon on very tall plants, a quite distinctive species from Oregon's coastal
mountains.
The Northwest branch of the American Penstemon Society was organized shortly after we
moved to Elma. From the start the Northwest program included a long weekend meeting in some
favored spot where penstemons grow, hosted by a member familiar with the area. The highlight was
always a field trip with the host as guide. These annual meetings were a means of discovering and
bringing into cultivation many species new to gardens as well as allowing new and old friends to get
together and Society business to be done.
Northwest Branch of the American Penstemon Society’s trip to western Idaho
One unforgettable outing was to western Idaho, an area especially rich in penstemons. The P.
globosus, from which my garden plant was secured, grew in quantity there in a rather moist area
which was different from the usual hot dry slopes beloved of the genus. It is robust for a
Proceri, with flowers of an exceptionally brilliant blue.
P. deustus in western Idaho was ssp. heterander, with flowers of un-tinted satiny white, a
compact neat habit of growth, and dwarfish with holly-notched foliage.
P. cusickii, a dainty little Saccanthera, showed up on south-facing grassy slopes; its foliage was
also "grassy." This one we did not succeed in domesticating and it is no longer available.
The spreading bushes and large lavender bells of P. venustus were plentiful. Not so plentiful but
also present was P. glandulosus. I remember the way the glands that tipped each almost invisible hair
glistened in the early morning sun. The species is densely glandular in all parts.
There were whole fields of two beautiful and rather localized species, P. payettensis and
lemhiensis. Both are tall Habroanthus with unbelievably dense and numerous spikes of large blue
bells. Sometimes a pink variant appeared, but mostly the patches looked like uniform spots of
summer sky pinned to earth.
P. speciosus grew in Idaho too but not in such abundance. It is somewhat like the preceding
species but has S-shaped anthers as a distinguishing characteristic. We found it in both the glabrous
form and, more rarely, the pubescent form called 'Rex'.
Much later, a Society outing to eastern Idaho showed us P. cyaneus, another beautiful blue in the
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same group.
APS Trip to southern Wyoming and northwest Colorado
An APS outing to southern Wyoming and northwest Colorado took me into a country of new and
different Penstemons, including P. osterhoutii and cyathophorus, both in the Anularius section. They
are quite similar, wee compact plants with short stems of flowers in ring formation around the stems,
the corollas light blue with pinkish tones in the buds. Both species have thick pubescent foliage and
grow on dry sandy hillsides.
Also in the Rockies, but on a high mesa, were the most exquisite mats of Ericopsis I have ever
seen: P. acaulis and caespitosus, if memory serves me, with tiny needle-like leaves, the mats covered
with the bluest of wee flowers.
Like all good things, the Washington years came to an end, as did my active gardening years.
(In 1968, Myrtle's husband went down to his favorite fishing spot on the nearby river one
afternoon and did not return; he had died of a sudden heart attack. Myrtle kept on alone at Elm
for a little over a year and then, urged by her children, went to stay in Melbourne, Florida, near
one son. This was apartment living, but as always, she "had a picnic" identifying the strange
new plants, subtropical this time. She also looked forward each year to coming back west.
Daughter Mable planted what the family called "Myrtle's flowers"—Penstemons—in her garden
at Anza in southern California. Myrtle spent her summers there; she gardened, visited friends
and relatives up and down the coast, and always attended the APS Northwest meetings.
Before going on with Myrtle Hebert's memories of Penstemons, something should be said
about her activities with the American Penstemon Society. A founding member of the Society,
she directed several APS correspondence circles (round robins) from the start and was a
member of others. In 1953, after moving to Washington, she took on the duties of Seed Exchange
Director and held that position for eleven years. "Many evenings in the Elma house were spent, "
she said, "at a huge old desk in the basement living room ... writing notes, sorting or cleaning
seeds and filling orders, while my husband watched TV." She corresponded with most of the seed
donors; they sent her lists of what they hoped to collect and sometimes specimens of plants to
identify. Misnamed seeds did come in frequently and samples of questionable batches were
forwarded to Levandeur Boyrie in Portland, Oregon, for identification under a microscope.
Levandeur headed the APS Identification Committee for the ten years of its existence, 19601970; Myrtle was the other member of the committee. The seed bank and methods of
identification they developed, along with many pressed specimens, were passed on to the
Lodewicks for use in their Identifier work.
After moving to Florida, Myrtle was drafted into office as round robin coordinator for the
Society from 1970 to 1974. She revived some correspondence circles, started at least one new
one, watched over the traveling letters to be sure none got "pigeon-holed," and in general "kept
the robins flying. " Several times she tried to resign from the Directors ' Robin, but the Board
kept her in as long as they could persuade her to stay. She remained the first person people
thought of writing to, for information about joining the Society, or about Penstemon problems.
Myrtle enjoyed the subtropical flora of the Indian River area where, she lived from 1970 on,
though she never located any of the Florida Penstemons; probably they grow only in the
northern part of the state. Each summer she came back west to spend two months or more in
southern California where her daughter had made a Penstemon garden for her.)
Recent years allowed me one more penstemon growing diversion in my daughter's garden at
Anza. It is a lovely remote spot; a huge saucer-like valley at 4000 feet elevation, some 125 miles
southeast of Los Angeles and rimmed in by higher mountains all around—really primeval and
exhilarating, with fresh pure air and blue skies, wonderful soil, and a whole new world of wild plants
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to study and learn about. The change in climate for gardening may have been as extreme as the
Montana to Washington break, but this time from a region of heavy rainfall and acid soil to one
where summer rains are non-existent, irrigation necessary, and the soil neutral and very fertile. Here
for five years we grew some of the semi-desert species from the Southwest, a new and different
country and a new and different section of the Penstemon family.
All around the Anza garden in nearby fields were vivid clumps of P. centranthifolius, the
'Scarlet Bugler' beloved by Californians, and huge bushes of P. spectabilis with showy blue to
lavender-purple flowers. These vary widely, but generally the lips are bright blue, the tube violet or
pastel tones. P. centranthifolius has desert-type leaves, fleshy, heavily furred and resistant to
evaporation; P. spectabilis has greener leaves, serrate and glossy. A similar species, P.
pseudospectabilis with pink flowers and very lovely, is a Californian too but not from that immediate
area.
P. palmeri, from nearby, grew and bloomed extravagantly for us, with large pink corollas, very
fragrant, a bumblebee paradise.
P. labrosus, brought down from higher in the mountains, thrived at Anza, blooming above wide
spreading mats of linear-to-lanceolate green leaves. The flowers are scarlet, the petals widespread
like fingers, the whole seeming to float on air. Unfortunately, in the garden, it grows twice as tall as
on the heights, losing its elfin daintiness.
P. bridgesii [now known as P. rostiflorus], also from high mountain areas, resembles the last
species closely, but has a woody base, sac anthers, and slightly smaller flowers. I remember finding
this in full bloom in mid-September in a glade among the pines at 6000 feet elevation, a graceful airy
thing with narrow tubular bells, reflexed lower lip and grassy foliage.
P. grinnellii, another nearby native, in some ways resembles P. palmeri, having the same large,
fat flowers; but where palmeri grows 5 feet tall, grinnellii is only 18", spreading into a wide mat. The
flowers are a very pale pink or lavender, veined deeply with maroon like palmeri but lacking its
fragrance.
P. barbatus ssp. torreyi made thick clumps of foliage and sent up many tall stems, bearing
corollas narrower than in the type form but a deeper scarlet. I also had one plant of the yellow form,
P. barbatus flaviflorus. It bore even narrower flowers, not nearly as eye-catching, but being yellow,
which in Penstemons is rare, I prized it highly. Less robust, it still sent up several tall stems of bloom.
Starts of this plant later went to a number of APS members, especially to Leonard Pollard, with the
hope of breeding the yellow strain into his hybrids. Unfortunately, none of the plants seem to have
survived the change of growing conditions.
P. clutei, which I valued in the Montana garden, thrived in California. It is lovely both in the
iridescent gloss on the leaves and the odd rosy pink shade of the bells, which are produced on long,
loosely strung stems. And it did not flop! Very few penstemons did flop in the Anza garden but stood
up sturdily, regardless of gale winds.
A mystery penstemon, from seed sent by a friend who collected it in Baja, California, grew well
and bloomed fully for a long time with inch-long bells of an unusual pink-to-maroon shade. The
leaves were serrate and connate around the stem. This we finally identified as P. clevelandii, ssp.
connatus. It proved a most happy immigrant.
Three Habroanthus from the southern Rockies also grew successfully: the old standby from my
Montana days, P. glaber, and equally robust P. brandegei, which I had not grown before, and also P.
pennellianus. All three made rampant growth and sent up in their second and succeeding years as
many as 50 stems of bloom. Unfortunately, they crossed wildly, and P. pennellianus seemed to be
swallowed up by the two more dominant species. During the first two years, before their offspring
began to confuse the picture, P. glaber showed a creamy white throat, P. brandegei had violet tones
in its tube, and what I took to be P. pennellianus seemed to hold to a uniform blue throughout, being
also more refined and slightly smaller.
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P. parvulus was my only small species here in the south, a delightful little rock garden type
from the Siskiyou Mountains at the northern end of the state. Its little blue bells on individual
stems reminded me of Campanula mundifolia.
P. buckleyi, a plant my daughter secured for me in Oklahoma on a vacation trip, was a delight
and a regular and perennial performer with thick, fleshy round leaves and rings of little lavender
flowers at intervals up a 2'-5-foot stem. I have counted more than 30 stems in bloom at one time.
This species has the endearing habit of continuing to stretch upward and onward with more buds over
a long period of time. Later its progeny increased the display.
Last in line was what came to me as P. grandiflorus, rose color, but which I think was a Fate
hybrid. The plants—about 24 grew to blooming size—were typical P. grandiflorus in foliage,
though of course the other parent in the Fate cross was P. murrayanus, with quite similar leaves of
the roundish, thick, furry sun-and-wind resistant prairie type. The flowers, though of grandiflorus
shape and often as large, showed too wide a variety of color for the pure species, however. Only one
plant, the branchiest and biggest, bore the original lavender grandiflorus color; three came in pure
white; one, in deep purple; and the rest, in tints of rose, salmon, peach and red.
A few special Penstemon pictures, filed away in memory's garden and not mentioned earlier, will
be added here.
First are two from Montana that must not be omitted: P. secundiflorus lavendulus, a
charming little foot-high member of the Anularius section with spikes of flowers of a warm
lavender and blue-green leaves, came to my garden from the hills of southern Montana and
Wyoming. P. montanus idahoensis I did not grow, but did see it in bloom on bare banks of redbrown soil which made a perfect background for the low creeping grey-green plants, topped by small
upfacing violet flowers. It is one of Idaho's loveliest Penstemons, but seeming quite different from
P. montanus, of which it is supposedly a subspecies.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico grew the most beautiful plant of P. ambiguus, as large as a tub,
solidly covered with phlox-like blooms, their white faces pink on reverse.
In a canyon just out of Salt Lake City were lovely clumps of P. cyananthus, another of the
choice, densely spiked, very blue Habroanthus (even its name means blue).
P. angustifolius caudatus I saw in New Mexico. It is similar to P. buckleyi except that its
rings of bloom are blue instead of lavender and the bracts are pointed instead of round.
In Arkansas, I saw the Penstemon named for the state, P. arkansanus, a neat little white one,
and another I liked so much, lovely P. tubaeflorus, also white, a really sparkling white, the large
flowers holding their heads proudly erect.
And of course, once again, the loveliest penstemon I ever grew and bloomed was P. xylus [now
considered a synonym for P. crandallii Ed.], which Carl Worth collected in the La Salle Mountains
east of Moab, Utah, and near the Colorado border. Keck lists it as synonymous with P. crandallii, but
it is entirely different when you see the living plant. I would love to have someone collect it again,
and bring it back into cultivation.
This record has covered roughly forty years on the penstemon trail in a good many states, with a
good many friends, and it has brought back memories of wonderful times shared. If it is the end of
the trail now, I have no complaints. Living with penstemons has been a wonderful hobby.