Penstemon George Home (Beardtongue)
Free flowering and vigorous, award-winning Penstemon ‘George Home’ is a bushy perennial boasting showy, funnel-shaped, broadly flared, bright cerise flowers, 1 in. long (2.5 cm), with contrasting white mouths and throats.
Free flowering and vigorous, award-winning Penstemon 'George Home' is a bushy perennial boasting showy, funnel-shaped, broadly flared, bright cerise flowers, 1 in. long (2.5 cm), with contrasting white mouths and throats. They rise elegantly above a foliage mound of narrow, dark green leaves. A lovely way to add long-lasting, cheerful color to the border.
- On display from late summer through fall, this Penstemon grows vigorously to 28 in. tall (70 cm) and 18-24 in. wide (45-60 cm), and adds lovely vertical lines to the landscape.
- Winner of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit of the Royal Horticultural Society for its noteworthy qualities.
- Provides a bold and striking impact in beds, borders, cottage gardens, city gardens or in coastal gardens. Ideal for naturalistic planting schemes. Good as cut flowers too!
- Best grown in full sun or partial shade, in fertile, dry to medium moisture, well-drained soils. Tolerates almost any soils including dry soils. Drought tolerant once established. Dislikes damp conditions and needs excellent drainage! Penstemons need very little water and barely any fertilizer. Fertilize lightly when planting and then never again. Over fertilizing Penstemons leads to excessive die back in the winter.
- Attracts scores of hummingbirds, butterflies and other beneficial pollinators but is resistant to deer and rabbits.
- Generally disease free. May be attacked by slugs, snails, glasshouse red spider mite, and leaf and bud eelworms
- Propagate by softwood cuttings in early summer or semi-hardwood cuttings in midsummer. Propagate by division in spring.
- Deadhead after flowering to maintain vigor. Then cut back to base in early spring
Requirements
Hardiness | 6 – 9 |
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Heat Zones | 1 – 9 |
Climate Zones | 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 |
Plant Type | Perennials |
Plant Family | Penstemon – Beardtongues |
Exposure | Full Sun, Partial Sun |
Season of Interest | Summer (Late)Fall |
Height | 2' – 3' (60cm – 90cm) |
Spread | 1' – 2' (30cm – 60cm) |
Spacing | 24″ (60cm) |
Water Needs | Low |
Maintenance | Low |
Soil Type | Chalk, Loam, Sand |
Soil pH | Acid, Alkaline, Neutral |
Soil Drainage | Well-Drained |
Characteristics | Cut Flowers, Plant of Merit, Showy, Semi-Evergreen |
Tolerance | Deer, Drought, Rabbit, Dry Soil, Salt |
Attracts | Butterflies, Hummingbirds |
Garden Uses | Beds and Borders, Wall-Side Borders |
Garden Styles | Coastal Garden, Informal and Cottage, Prairie and Meadow, Traditional Garden |