Pineleaf penstemon
Penstemon pinifolius ·
A low, shrubby, evergreen mound of needle-like leaves covered with narrow orange-red or yellow tubes all summer. Hummingbirds love it.
- Size
- 12 in tall, 18 in wide
- Zones
- 4 to 9
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Mid June to early August
- Pets
- Not checked
- Job in a bed
- Edging
A bed built around pineleaf penstemon
The planner designed this bed around pineleaf penstemon when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 715 that suit those conditions and its dry soil, and says below why pineleaf penstemon stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Pineleaf penstemon × 3, orange
- 2 Yellow ice plant × 8, yellow
- 3 Little bluestem 'The Blues' × 5, tan
- 4 False sunflower 'Summer Nights' × 3, yellow
- 5 Silver sage × 1, silver leaves
- 6 Yarrow 'Paprika' × 3, red
- 7 Ornamental onion 'Purple Sensation' × 4, purple
- 8 Spring starflower × 12, blue
Why this plant
- The only trumpets. The others are daisies, spires, flat plates and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
- The only orange.
Why here
- On the front edge. At 12 in it frames the bed without hiding it, and it is in leaf all season. It finishes 36% of the edge.
- 3 plants in one run. An unbroken run of one kind gives the edge a clean line.
- Fine leaf against bold. Silver sage is beside it: the strongest contrast of leaf there is.
Why now
- In flower for 9 weeks. From mid June to early August.
- Part of the bed's peak. With little bluestem 'The Blues', false sunflower 'Summer Nights' and yarrow 'Paprika' in early August: 4 kinds at once. No week has more.
- One of two evergreens. They are what the bed has to show from November to March.
Planned as an English border: 5 of the 5 groups (100%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. The back corners are held by false sunflower 'Summer Nights' and little bluestem 'The Blues', the tallest plants on the plan. Hot colours (orange, yellow and red) with purple and blue as the cool notes, and tan to calm things between them.
The planner's own design check: 14 Excellent, 3 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where pineleaf penstemon goes in a border
At 12 in it belongs at the front of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is low (6 to 12 in).
Its job: edging. A low, neat plant used in short runs of three or five along the front to finish the edge (or, in a formal bed, in one even row).
It looks like a dwarf pine when out of flower, so it gives the front of a dry bed evergreen structure. Perfect drainage is essential.
- Rock and gravel gardens
- Edging dry beds
- Hummingbird gardens
What to plant with pineleaf penstemon
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Blue fescue: its blue-green leaves are a setting for the flowers, before and after; happy in the same dry soil.
- English lavender 'Hidcote': purple against yellow, opposite each other on the colour wheel, if you choose those colours, in flower together for six weeks; spires rising out of its mound; happy in the same dry soil.
- Hardy ice plant: purple against yellow, opposite each other on the colour wheel, if you choose those colours, in flower together for nine weeks; low enough (4 in) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
Questions about pineleaf penstemon
Does pineleaf penstemon need sun or shade?
Pineleaf penstemon grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants dry, sharply drained soil, on the lean side, with no feeding, and little watering once settled.
What zones does pineleaf penstemon grow in?
USDA zones 4 to 9. It is hardy to zone 4, which means it survives winter nights down to about −20 °F (−29 °C).
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does pineleaf penstemon flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers mid June to early August. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 4 | Late June to mid August |
|---|---|
| Zone 5 | Mid June to early August |
| Zone 6 | Mid June to early August |
| Zone 7 | Early June to early August |
| Zone 8 | Early June to early August |
| Zone 9 | Late May to late July |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should pineleaf penstemon be planted?
16 in (40 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 18 in (45 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 12 in (30 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many pineleaf penstemon plants do I need?
At 16 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 7 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 8 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 21 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as runs of three or five along the front (or one even row, in a formal bed).
In the bed above, the planner used three in one group.
What flowers after pineleaf penstemon?
Pineleaf penstemon is over by early August. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Lilyturf: from early August to mid September, 16 in tall.
- Sedum 'Autumn Joy': from mid August to mid October, 24 in tall.
- Little bluestem 'Standing Ovation': from early August to mid September, 3½ ft tall.
What does pineleaf penstemon look like in winter?
Pineleaf penstemon keeps its green leaves all winter, so it is one of the plants that hold a bed together from November to March, when the perennials have gone.
More Penstemon
- Beardtongue 'Dark Towers' Penstemon 'Dark Towers'
- Beardtongue 'Husker Red' Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red'
- Beardtongue 'Prairie Dusk' Penstemon 'Prairie Dusk'
- Firecracker penstemon Penstemon eatonii
- Foxglove beardtongue Penstemon digitalis
- Hairy beardtongue Penstemon hirsutus
- Large beardtongue Penstemon grandiflorus
- Rocky Mountain penstemon Penstemon strictus
In these guides
Zone guides: Zone 4 · Zone 5 · Zone 6 · Zone 7 · Zone 8 · Zone 9
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 12 in (30 cm) tall, 18 in (45 cm) wide
- Plant
- 16 in (40 cm) apart
- Height class
- Low (6 to 12 in)
- Place in the bed
- Front
- Flowers
- Mid June to early August; trumpets; orange, yellow
- Leaves
- Fine texture, evergreen; green
- Shape
- Mounding, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 4 to 9
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Lean, dry and sharply drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
Not yet checked against an outside reference: its figures rest on general horticultural knowledge. Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.