Penstemon humilis (Low Penstemon) 50 seeds

Low Penstemon is a showy, compact, mat-forming herbaceous perennial with small but gorgeous flowers -- vibrant violet, lavender, magenta and purples, sometimes blue that look sugar dusted. One of our favorites for its beauty, compact size, and being very easy to care for once established. 

Found in rocky openings in oak-mahogany-serviceberry, snowberry-sagebrush-bitterbrush-grassland, and less commonly conifer-aspen and lodgepole pine communities. from 4,000 - 10,000 ft. We find humilis and leonardii next to each other often, mostly in rocky sage-steppe with few shrubs taller than the sagebrush. Otherwise humilis generally grows in lower, slightly drier zones often in more of dry-woodland setting than leonardii.

Drought-tolerant, needing nothing more than annual precipitation and found in extremely wide variety of habitats make this a great addition to your xeric garden or native yard and could excel in rock gardens or as a ground cover addition. Not as woody as Leonard's Penstemon but has a similar growth habit except it grows on the ground as a mat rather than slightly elevated. Also blooms a bit earlier in the year.

Full sun to part shade in rocky fast draining soil. Hardy in zones 4-9

Try planting with Mountain Big Sagebrush, Whorled Buckwheat, Leonard's Penstemon and Birch-leaf Mountain Mahogany.