A few weeds have been creeping into the bed where we are growing some of the plants that we collected in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming in 2010. I was not being particularly productive in the stuffy confines of the office, so I weeded for an hour or so before I went home. The bed looks good, thanks in large part to all the attention Brad has given it. The Penstemon grandiflorus bloomed today, in response to dramatically warmer and more humid weather. It indeed has the largest flowers of all the penstemons, or beardtongues. The seed came from a few plants near Oak Park in Whitewood, SD, and our friend Jackie Hoffman helped us collect the bit of seed that was remaining in the pods when we visited in May. The foliage on this plant is stunning, almost as blue as a good blue spruce, and the flowers are a wonderful lavender shade that harmonizes perfectly with the foliage. I think this is more glaucous than plants of this species I have seen further east. Makes sense, since long droughts and low humidity and wind are facts of life where this was collected, and more wax on the leaves means less water loss. Now we will see how it persists or if it self sows.
Chris Upton of 1003 Gardens fame stopped by as his work day was ending and expressed his admiration for "xeriphytic rosettes" such as those displayed as this plant was making its way through our mild winter. It's comforting to know that he has an unexplained and deep love for those rosettes the way I have an unexplained and deep love for bulbs!
I think bulbs and xeric rosettes are the same sorts of things; they both utilize a strategy for getting through hard times by hunkering down, then blossom when the time is right!?
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