Last year’s experiments are starting to bloom. The Penstemons native to Kansas are fine plants, but if you want the vivid blues that the genus is legendary for, you need to look to the arid west. The very blue P. mensarum is found only in a small region in Colorado. Fortunately, it is easy from stratified seed, and the plants seem perfectly happy in Kansas.
P. “Blue Lips” is a hybrid between two mat-forming species. Out of bloom it looks like a creeping conifer.
Penstemon also includes some good reds, such as P. eatonii. Red Penstemons typically have narrowly tubular flowers designed for hummingbirds rather than bees.
There are several more species of Penstemon that will bloom soon. May should be very colorful.
Besides Penstemons, I also tried Stanleya pinnata.
The flowers of Linum narbonense are slightly larger than those of L. perenne, and open a deeper blue. It’s supposed to be longer-lived than L. perenne. We’ll see.
Also flowering:
