How to make your garden bloom

The West's best flowers for borders, beds, bouquets, and containers

20 favorite perennial flowers

These unfussy, long-lived plants pump out beautiful foliage and flowers year after year. Plant in fall or spring when cooler temperatures help them get a healthy start|Kathleen N. Brenzel

Penstemon Beard Tongue (Penstemon)
Photo by Marion Brenner

Penstemon (P.  gloxinioides)

These bushy plants are fairly short lived, but to make up for it, they produce lots of trumpet-shaped blooms over a long period.

Deep purple ‘Midnight’ and scarlet ‘Firebird’ are standouts for their vivid, south-of-the-border colors. Pink and white ‘Appleblossom’ looks fresh and springlike.

More about Penstemon


  • Loading comments...

Add your comment

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. An asterisk * indicates a required field.

500 characters remaining

Advertisement