I've read Alpine-L for the last several years and have enjoyed it. However, I never made an entry into the site. Considering the interesting topics recently, I thought I'd pose a question to the audience. First some background: I garden in Richland, Washington which is in the central part of the state (Lower Columbia Basin). Our weather is cool winters, hot summers, 300 ft elevation, and 8 inches of rain. I've grown many species of Penstemon for more than 10 years, mainly as hosts for Castilleja. I have at least 100 P. strictus in my terraces, and they have began to travel from that home. Several have turned up growing in my slate patio, placed there by gold finches (an assumption). Among several P. strictus which showed up in May 2010 was one with 12-18 inch spikes and pink campanulate flowers with faint red guidelines. The only other penstemon within 25 ft are 12 P. eatonii, 10 P. speciosus, 3 P. hirsutus, 2 P. palmeri and 1 P. pinifolius. Obvious hybrid contributors, such as P. barbatus, are not within 400 ft of the patio. Additionally, all other penstemon are in the front of the house (more than 100 ft). Pollinators are probably bumblebees, but we do get black chinned and calliope hummingbirds in late June.
This assumed hybrid has basal leaves of lanceolate character and a flower arrangement of a thyrse with 3 pairs of cymes in 3 verticilasters. I do have images of the plant, but don't have a website to post them. The best I can do are a few images of my yard at: http://www.inlandnwgardening.com/gallery2/v/tri/. If I were to guess, I'd suggest the presumed hybrid is P. strictus mixed with P. eatonii since both are within subgenus Habroanthus. Has anyone a suggestion? Perhaps, some thing to narrow down the guess work. Cheers, Dave Nelson Richland, Washington where it's 25oF tonight daveand...@frontier.com
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