Gardener's Guide to Growing Penstemons

Until the First World War the needs of formal bedding had largely dictated the way in which penstemons were developed - indeed, they became so popular during the 19th century that it was not unknown for whole borders, even whole areas of a garden, to be devoted solely to them. But, in the 1890s, a change of fashion was beginning to grip the British gardening world, influenced by the writings of William Robinson, Gertrude Jekyll, E. A. Bowles and their supporters. Their emphasis on the herbaceous border as a unified blend of colour, with informal romantic lines, did not admit the vivid colours that typified the large-flowered penstemon scene. Something else was needed and the impetus duly came, this time from England. This was the emergence of a medium-flowered range of bedding penstemons with bushier growth, better foliage, tidier habit and greater persistence. The key variety in this development was one from James Backhouse of York called P. 'Newbury Gem', which appeared around 1900. 'Newbury Gem' is known to have been 'sporty' since it gave rise to red, scarlet, cerise, pink and white variants, and to seed strains based on these colour forms which were reported to be quite reliable. Not much later-before 1910-P. 'Myddelton Gem', a favourite of E. A. Bowles after whose house it was named, was raised by Wallace & Co. of Colchester, Essex. At the same time the Southgate (north London) breeder J. Bradshaw raised P. 'Southgate Gem' from a cross of P. 'Newbury Gem' x P. hartwegii. P. 'White Bedder' and P. 'Hewell Pink Bedder' were to follow shortly afterwards, introduced by Forbes in 1912 and 1915 respectively. 'Southgate Gem' proved extremely popular, particularly in Europe, where it remains well represented in the catalogues to this day. It has a pure, bright but refined scarlet colour, a good upright habit and pleasing foliage, and it is not too large-all the virtues in fact except guaranteed persistence. This defect attracted the attention of the Swiss breeder Hermann Wartmann of St Gallen, who set out to breed a better constitution into 'Southgate Gem'. In 1918 he produced the famous P. 'Andenken an Friedrich Hahn' (syn. 'Garnet') from a cross of 'Southgate Gem' and, it is reported, P. hirsutus.Way, David is the author of 'Gardener's Guide to Growing Penstemons' with ISBN 9780881925685 and ISBN 0881925683.