When you see shrubby penstemons in nature, they are often growing in mounds of sand and grit or cinder that have been blown there by the wind, carried by runoff, or just slid downhill and been "captured" by the plants, which thus provide themselves with a new stock of nutrients. This tells us that you can propagate them just by pouring a good amount of suitable material over the crown of the plant, which will then produce nicely rooted new growth that can be removed in the next season.
After struggling to root one of my favorite penstemons, P. newberryi ssp. sonomensis, which has deep rose-red flowers, I finally got some going. Then I had to demolish the rock garden before I moved, and I lifted the whole plant, which was about 15 years old, cut off the dead root material, put it in a big pot, and covered the crown about 4 inches (10 cm) deep with coarse sand. It promptly produced a lot of fresh new, rooted shots. The best time to conduct a brutal maneuver like this is late winter to early spring. You would not have to dig up the parent plant. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA _______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
