Beard Tongue

Beard Tongue (Pentstemon) - For their varied color, profuse flowering, and graceful habit, Pentstemons have a high value for our flower-beds, especially as their beauty covers five months, commencing in June with the charming blue P. procerus, and finishing with the endless varieties of P. Hartwegi in shades of rose, scarlet, and crimson, whose beauty holds its own even in November, after more fragile plants have perished.

Beard Tongue Culture

As regards culture, the species have the reputation of being difficult to manage, as some of the shrubby section die when apparently in health. To ensure success, drainage is often essential, as they fear moisture at the roots more than cold. The best soil is friable loam, with a mixture of well-decayed leaf mould and sharp sand. It is well to have a few plants in cold frames, to fill any gaps in the borders. They may be grown from cuttings or seeds. Seed should be sown in February or March on a gentle hot-bed under a frame, in seed-pans well drained with broken plaster and filled with a compost of peat soil and sand. In April the seedlings should be pricked out under a frame, and these, planted out in May, will usually flower by autumn.

Hybrid Pentstemons are supposed to have come from P. gentianoides, but more largely from the pretty P. Hartwegi. P. Cobaea, too, has probably come in somewhere, for some varieties bear a strong resemblance to it. Whatever their parentage, they are beautiful plants, and much use should be made of them, as they are valuable in autumn and carry their beauty into winter; at least, in western and seaside gardens.

They succeed in any good soil, such as a good loam enriched with manure and leaf-soil. They can be planted out as groups in beds, or in the mixed border, where their various colors blend charmingly, ranging from white to scarlet, with intermediate shades of pink, rose, purple, carmine, and purplish-lilac. If good plants be put out by the end of April, they will bloom about the middle of June, and yield flowers until winter. They are increased both by cuttings and by seeds.

The Pentstemon is a free seeder, and there is no difficulty in obtaining seed. It should be taken from only the finest varieties showing distinct or novel character—and such varieties can scarcely fail to yield something worthy of cultivation. The seed should be sown in February or early in March in a gentle heat: it will quickly germinate, and when the plants are large enough to handle, they should be pricked off into shallow boxes, and after a time hardened off in a cold frame. Here they can remain till the end of May or later, according to size, and they should then be planted out in well-prepared beds. When they flower, which they will do by August and September, any especially good varieties should be marked for increase. If the bed of seedlings be allowed to stand for another season (and this is often a good plan), the seed-stalks should be cut away as soon as ripe, and the bed cleaned, top-dressed with leaf-soil and short manure in spring, and there will be a plentiful harvest of flowers the following summer. Seedlings should be protected by a cold frame during winter, and planted out in April in good soil in a sunny spot.

Good garden forms of Pentstemons are: Arthur J. Ward, Countess of Tweeddale, Dr Baine, Dr Barrie, Edwin Beckett, Emile Rodigas, George Horne, James Robertson, Jane Dieulafoy, John A. Elliot, John Forbes, John Jennings, Joseph Chamberlain, Joseph Kent, Lady Arthur, Lord Lister, Lord Rothschild, Marconi, Miss Stewart Peter, Miss Talbot, Mrs Forbes, Mrs J. Chamberlain, Mrs Oliver, Mrs Jennings, Mrs Younger, M. Deherain, Peter Readman, Simon Campbell, and Walter Thomson. The above are remarkable for the large size and brilliant color of their flowers, but a variety that for massing is as good as any is Newberry Gem. In this the blooms are small and graceful, very freely carried during many weeks on a plant of neat compact habit, their glowing crimson color rendering great effect in the border or in massed beds. It is hardier, too, than the others, and in many gardens quite a good perennial.

The following are the cultivated species. Some are not sufficiently hardy for border culture, though they succeed well enough against a warm wall. It is a very large genus in the vast range of its own country, so here are given a selection best for our climate.

Beard Tongue Pictures

Penstemon abietinus

Penstemon acaulis

Penstemon acaulis

Penstemon acuminatus

Penstemon acuminatus var. latebracteatus

Penstemon acuminatus var. latebracteatus

Penstemon albidus

Penstemon ambiguus

Penstemon ambiguus Image:Peam_1h.jpg|Penstemon ambiguus

Related Flowers

Pentstemon Acuminatus

Pentstemon Acuminatus - A pretty plant growing rigidly erect to 12 or 18 inches, with thick greyish leaves clasping the stem and a compact spike of mauve or violet flowers, wide at the throat and nearly an inch long.

Pentstemon Azureus

Pentstemon Azureus - A beautiful plant forming a neat tuft of narrow grey leaves and loose spikes of azure-blue flowers shading to reddish-purple at the base. N. California. Jaffrayanus.—One of the best dwarf forms, about a foot high, with redish stems bearing large flowers of rich blue in showy clusters of three to five blossoms.

Pentstemon Barbatus

Pentstemon Barbatus - A tall, erect plant, very showy in a dry season, and one of the best and hardiest kinds. Its spikes of narrow tubular flowers, varying from light pink to bright carmine, rise from a dense spreading tuft of bright green leaves. A flesh-colored form is known as carneum, and there is also a white form. Other varieties are Torreyi with deep scarlet flowers, longer in the lip and coming rather later than in the parent; and Antwerpensis, of looser procumbent habit, the stems rooting where they touch the ground, and bearing small flowers of vivid scarlet. Syn. Chelone Barbata.

Pentstemon Caeruleus

Pentstemon Caeruleus - A dwarf kind rarely exceeding 9 inches, with large flowers varying from light blue to lilac and white, or more rarely flushed with rose. The plant is sub-shrubby in habit with grey foliage, and is one of the most beautiful for the rock garden.

Pentstemon Campanulatus

Pentstemon Campanulatus - A Mexican species of about 2 feet with diffuse spreading habit, branching freely from a woody base; stemless leaves narrowing from a broad base and much toothed. Long narrow spikes of flowers variously shaded in pink and violet, and borne during a long season. Comes freely from seed.

Pentstemon Confertus

Pentstemon Confertus - A distinct plant with short erect stems rising from a carpet of dark green shining leaves, at times finely toothed. Small flowers of pale yellow or creamy white in dense crowded spikes. A much prettier variety of this is P. caeruleo-purpureus, with compact heads of deep violet blue, appearing earlier than any other kind. Syn. P. procerus.

Pentstemon Cordifolius

Pentstemon Cordifolius - A useful shrubbery plant of semi-climbing habit, flowering from early summer to late autumn. Its growths are leafy, the long slender stems loaded with tubular scarlet flowers about an inch long. S. California. Being tender, this handsome kind needs shelter in winter.

Pentstemon Glaber

Pentstemon Glaber - A handsome plant, and one of the best, with several fine seedling forms. Dwarf erect growths, often less than a foot high and slender in habit, with long narrow leaves, smooth and wavy. Profuse in fleshy flowers of an inch or more, wide at the mouth and borne in clusters of six or seven; color, bright blue shading to violet or purple. Banks of the Spokane River in N.W. America. Among its many good forms are alpinus, a dwarf robust kind with dense clusters of clear azure blue; cyanthus, a form from the Rocky Mountains, with taller and greener stems, broader in leaf, with dense clusters of blue; hybridus, stouter and more vigorous with large heads of blue and rosy-purple; speciosus, a narrow-leaved form with beautiful bright blue flowers shaded purple; and splendens, a tall plant with flowers of rich dark blue. Seed should be sown early in spring. Syns. P. speciosus and preanthera.

Pentstemon Heterophyllus

Pentstemon Heterophyllus - A lovely little subshrub, 12 to 15 inches high, with narrow leaves of grey-green, and slender branching stems of clear, bright blue flowers, with a rosy flush deepening to purple, and often much varied upon the same plant. July. Thrives best in warm sheltered spots and light soil, and it is best to winter a reserve of cuttings under glass. California.

Pentstemon Menziesii

Pentstemon Menziesii - A shrubby kind found by Douglas in the Rocky Mountains. It is a good rock plant for a sunny corner in dry sandy soil, with freely spreading stems of less than 12 inches, and pretty rose-purple flowers of brilliant hue. Increased by cuttings in sandy soil. Its several forms are: Douglasi, with small thick leaves and lilac or rosy-purple flowers; Newberryi, forming a graceful bush with pink or rosy-purple flowers; and Scouleri, a taller and earlier flowering form, of trailing habit, rooting at the joints, and hardier than most, its flowers of bluish-lilac or violet-purple. Oregon.

Pentstemon Ovatus

Pentstemon Ovatus - A pretty mountain plant from the limestone summits of Idaho, with slender erect stems of 3 feet, bearing bright green leaves and loose spikes of blue flowers changing to rosy-purple. It is best grown from seed at frequent intervals, old plants perishing.

Pentstemon Secundiflorus

Pentstemon Secundiflorus - A distinct plant of free growth, with narrow grey-green leaves and bluish flowers suffused with bronze where touched by sunlight. They are an inch or more long, very broad and bellshaped towards the mouth, and carried in long, narrow, one-sided racemes. Colorado.

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