If you love penstemon, choose plants carefully

The Chocolate Flower is a delicious and aromatic wildflower for the southwest. Chocolate Flower is a yellow daisy-like flower that both smells and tastes like chocolate. It is a perennial, but also reseeds itself everywhere. Birds love the seeds, especially finches. Chocolate flower can take full sun, but also thrives in filtered shade.The Desert Marigold is one of our stunning wildflowers. The gray-green leaves stay low to the ground, while one foot tall stems support a single, bright yellow daisy-like flower on top. The seeds are notoriously difficult to germinate, so it is best to start with a plant. Look for Desert Marigold in nurseries specializing in natives.View the list »
The Cup Flower, Nierembergia hippomanica ‘Purple Robe’ is a native wildflower that is easy to start either from seeds or plants. Once you introduce this prolific plant, you will have plenty. While the original plant only lasts one summer, the seeds will come up wherever there is water available. The tiny purple flowers appear on green, mounding plants.

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The Rocky Mountain Penstemon is a stunning perennial native to the high elevations of western states. Since it grows naturally at high elevations, it is not suitable for the lower elevations of Tucson and Green Valley. With so many other penstemons to choose from, it just makes sense to pick one suited to our climate. This is a good choice for people who live in the cooler locations of Southern Arizona, however.

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The Rocky Mountain Penstemon is petite in size, only reaching about one foot tall and wide. Like all penstemons, it needs good drainage and attracts hummingbirds. The flowers appear in the summer, and are violet-blue.

Plant penstemons with other perennials or shrubs to hide its dormancy. Good choices for companion perennials are the Chocolate Flower, Desert Marigold and Cup flower. All of these plants except the Desert Marigold, which is stubborn about coming up from seed, can be planted as seeds in the fall, or set out as plants in the spring or fall.

Reference: Mountain States Wholesale Nursery and Gregg Starr Nursery Plant Info Sheet, 1999.

View the list
  • The Cup Flower, Nierembergia hippomanica ‘Purple Robe’ is a native wildflower that is easy to start either from seeds or plants. Once you introduce this prolific plant, you will have plenty. While the original plant only lasts one summer, the seeds will come up wherever there is water available. The tiny purple flowers appear on green, mounding plants.
  • The Desert Marigold is one of our stunning wildflowers. The gray-green leaves stay low to the ground, while one foot tall stems support a single, bright yellow daisy-like flower on top. The seeds are notoriously difficult to germinate, so it is best to start with a plant. Look for Desert Marigold in nurseries specializing in natives.
  • The Chocolate Flower is a delicious and aromatic wildflower for the southwest. Chocolate Flower is a yellow daisy-like flower that both smells and tastes like chocolate. It is a perennial, but also reseeds itself everywhere. Birds love the seeds, especially finches. Chocolate flower can take full sun, but also thrives in filtered shade.
View the list

, Tucson Gardening Examiner

This author has lived in Arizona since 1972 and has been gardening for more than 28 years. A landscape architect and certified arborist, Linda teaches classes for everyone in desert plant care for Green Valley Recreation, and provides services in landscape design. Contact her at Linda...

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