Penstemon parishii seems to have the cold tolerance and drought
tolerance of centranthifolius with the flowers and flowering of
P.clevelandii, the plant matures to 3' with a 3' flower spike of the
hottest pink flowers you ever saw. The flowers are 1" tubes of satin
pink that are something hummingbirds will kill for. (You get into
real trouble if you prune the flowers in June or July for a flower
arrangement. You had better look out or one or two of the little
hummers will be dive bombing you the whole time you're near this
one.) It is native to the Calabasas area and is a natural
hybrid.(Penstemon centranthifolius X P. Clevelandii OR
Penstemon spectablis). This a is plant passersby can see from the
road. Gray plant people and pinkies love it! We get ladies with pink
pants, blouse and shoes that get out of the car and see nothing else
but this plant. It flowers at the same time as Salvia 'Pozo Blue'
and Helianthus gracilentus so use them together in a sunny dry
flower bed or slope. We will probably develop one or two other forms
of this in the future. The area it is native to has clay soil and
does fine in our sandy loam.
We try to separate the parishii from the spectablis, but sometimes
we'll guess wrong and you'll get one more spectablis or even
centranthifolius. Who needs to go to Vegas?
Penstemon parishii tolerates clay.
Penstemon parishii is great for a bird garden.
Foliage of Penstemon parishii has color gray and is evergreen.
Flower of Penstemon parishii has color pink.
Communities for Penstemon parishii:Chaparral and Southern Oak Woodland.