PENSTEMONS: HISTORY

Penstemons are really remarkable. They are tough native plants which like infertile, well-drained soil, limited water, and a full sun exposure. Note however, that they do not like clay.

While the ranch is well provided with infertile areas with limited water and full-sun exposures, there IS a lot of clay. That being said, there are also a number of areas that are rocky or gravelly.

The goal here would be to try and establish some reproducing populations of penstemons, particular the rarer types. As a first experiment, I obtained some Penstemon strictus from Heron Landscaping. The location was behind the retaining wall to the north - which certainly fit every requirement! These were planted in October of 2020. The same vole baskets that I use for the balsamroots were used here as well.

HOWEVER, the Penstemon strictus did great. Two of them bloomed the first year (see image below, the other is similar), and they just were AMAZING the second year (see the second image below as well). Note that the growing season of 2021 was excessively dry for the whole season. 2022 started out with a very wet spring, only to transition into an unusually dry (and unusually extended) summer. I wasn't quite willing to risk no supplemental water at all, but they didn't get much. Both years, they received limited supplemental water perhaps every two weeks during August and September.

The great success of the Penstemon strictus led to a planting binge in Fall 2021 of various penstemons. These were obtained either from Derby Canyon Natives or from Heron Landscaping.

The list is:

Penstemon barrettiae (Barrett's penstemon)

Penstemon eatonii (Firecracker penstemon)

Penstemon newberryi (Newberry's penstemon)

Penstemon pinifolius (Pineleaf penstemon)

Penstemon richardsonii (Richardson's penstemon)

Penstemon wilcoxii (threatened in Washington, hope is they will self-seed in this location, they are planted the furthest away from the camera in the driest location)

Penstemon fruticosa (Shrubby penstemon)

Ipomopsis aggregata (Scarlet gilia)

Images of most of these are below (before planting):

After the success of the 2021 season, we had a reality reset during the winters of 2022-2-23 and 2023-2024. The winter of 2022-2023 started early, and had an unusual amount of snow. The early onset was the major issue, as it caused extensive damage to local plants (including native plants) as plants had not fully entered dormancy when winter set in. Then (in a one-two whammy) the winter of 2023-2024 almost reversed this pattern, with very little snow (but still a nasty cold snap mid-winter). This meant we had a period of -10-20F temperatures without a protecting blanket of snow. The lack of snow also meant there was no "melt" during Spring 2024, so the usual burst of spring meltwater that saturates the clay did not occur. The net result is the vast majority of penstemons planted during Fall 2022 and Fall 2023 did not survive. Exceptions were largely P. fruticosa.