Pronounciation: Pen-STE-mon psu-e-do-spec-TA-bi-lis

Hardiness zones:
Sunset 2-3, 10, 12-21
USDA 5-10

Landscape Use: Spring color, accent, landscape border, xeriscape.

Form & Character: Rosetting to upright, stiff and rigid.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, short-lived herbaceous perennial, bushy and clumping with upright flower spikes, 4-feet tall.

Foliage/Texture: Opposite, thick glabrous, clasping leaves, glaucous, serrate margins; medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Flowers on a bolting spike, flower corolla to 3/4-inch long, bright rosy pink to purplish pink, scarcely 2-lipped, stamen sometimes bearded. Fruit a greenish capsule.

Seasonal Color: Striking rosy pink flowers in March-April.

Temperature: Actively growing from late fall through winter into later spring, dormant during summer.

Light: Full sun, shade intolerant.

Soil: Needs well-drained soil to avoid fungal root rots.

Watering: Regular supplemental water is needed, but at intervals that allow the soil to dry inbetween scheduled irrigations.

Pruning: Remove spent flower spikes unless harvesting seed.

Propagation: Seed

Disease and Pests: Fungal root rots only if soil is poorly drained.

Additional comments: Wonderfully spectacular spring accent plant for desert and upper elevation Arizona city gardens. Will reseed some, which like other penstemon is to your advantage. Blooms a little after Penstemon eatonii and Penstemon parryi and is more cold tolerant.