penstemon linarioides

One of my favorite blues is Penstemon linarioides, only this year it isn't so much blue as lavender (compare to banner photo). This is actually one of the most colorful of the lot this year, most of the others being a very pale, washed-out color. It is still one of the cutest penstemon I know of. Just to show some of the variation that P.lin can exhibit, here's what's blooming in my garden now:

Most of the plants look like this, in the pale, washed out color:

This is a plant that I'm trialling in my lightly irrigated courtyard. It has a bit more color, and larger flowers. Since it is a cutting of the above plant, it shows a bit how culture and climate affect flower color.
This is a seedling of a plant I bought from Agua Fria Nursery in Santa Fe. I believe it is from seed collected in Colorado. It is more of a vibrant purple and red-purple than lavender. In the garden, it appears a bit darker.


This is a seedling blooming for the first time in the 3/8" gravel mulch. It has flowers such a vibrant blue that I wonder where it came from. It doesn't look at all like the other seedlings growing less than two feet away. I wonder if it is part of the natural variation, or if it is a hybrid between the various forms of P.lin that I own, or if it is cultural, or even if it is a hybrid with P. heterophyllus (not likely, since the leaves are exactly like the other P.lin's). Still, it has promise to be the best P. linaroides that I've seen.