Gail, of Clay and Limestone, kindly sent me some Penstemon X last year, which included a bonus Phlox (I'm assuming it's the PPP that is a standout in her garden).
Both are flourishing and the phlox is flowering now, after a season heeled into a rich potting mix in a container.
I'll be transplanting both to suitable permanent spaces this spring, which will be a lovely passalong plant to think about.
I love the process of gardening: planting, digging, watching, and observing. Some plants are surprising. These Penstemons were planted last fall.
A purple Penstemon from a local native plant nursery (Carolina Wild) is spectacular, although I've probably confused it with something else I bought. I've not see it in nature, but it clearly is thriving here in the bed outside the breakfast room window.
The more common P. digitalis is also striking.
And I'm looking forward to seeing how the young Penstemon X plants, now identified as P. calycosus (sent by Gail at Clay and Limestone) grow in our garden -- they're currently in a nursery bed waiting to be settled before transplanting again.
Thanks, Gail!
Summer evenings in the Southern U.S. are full of sounds -- cicadas, crickets, tree frogs, with an occasional late katydid. The crickets and tree frogs are melodious; the cicadas produce a harsh whirring sound, hard to describe.
The evening light is a deep purple now turning a peach-apricot color, with clouds hinting of a good chance of thunderstorms. The last two evening's 'isolated' thunderstorms passed us by, so hopefully we'll get more than a few drops tonight. The clouds look thick on the weather radar.
It was a good day in the garden. I put extra lime in the bed near the breakfast room, to make the midwestern Penstemons from yesterday's foray seem more at home.
One of them was labeled Penstemon 'Sour Grapes'. The nursery owner told me it was Penstemon cobea, an adaptable plant of limestone glades and outcrops from Central Texas north to Missouri. 
An Internet search suggested, however, that P. 'Sour Grapes' is of hybrid origin, possibly with P. hirsutus as a parent. Paghat.com suggests it's of muddled heritage, but is a tough evergreen perennial that attracts hummingbirds. Sounds like it's worth a try to me. Penstemon digitalis 'Husker's Red' is a selection of a widely distributed Central and Southeastern U.S. species. The attractive Heuchera 'Palace Purple' turned out to be a patented selection of H. micrantha, which hopefully will like the partial shade/light afternoon sun conditions in this border.
And the Lavender 'Anouk' - one of the give-aways for speakers and volunteers at the recent Master Gardener's conference was a patented selection of Lavandula stoechas. Hmmm. Patenting plants is a somewhat odd (in my opinion) development of American horticulture.
In any case, I settled them all into the bed, and will see how they do. Gardening is always an experiment.
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