Penstemon Stapleford Gem (Beardtongue)

A very popular Penstemon variety, award-winning Penstemon 'Stapleford Gem' is a bushy semi-evergreen perennial with erect panicles boasting large, richly colored bell-shaped flowers, 1.5 in. long (3.5 cm). The blooms are a fabulous mix of bright lilac trumpets with pale lilac-pink upper lips, white lower lips, and throats exhibiting a delicate purple veining. This attractive color palette makes it easy to fit most garden color schemes. The flowers rise on wine-red stems above a foliage mound of shiny, lance-shaped leaves. A compact, vigorous and fast growing variety that is excellent in pots and containers as well as directly in the garden.

• On display from late spring through fall, this Penstemon grows vigorously to 24 in. tall and wide (60 cm), and adds lovely vertical lines to the landscape. 
• Recipient of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit of the Royal Horticultural Society
• Provides a bold and striking impact in beds, borders, cottage gardens, rock gardens or in prairie plantings. 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