|This short-lived perennial, often treated as an annual in colder climates, is grown primarily for it's pretty, tubular, two-lipped flowers (all colors but blue and yellow). The leaves are narrow and lance shaped (up to 1 inch long). Penstemons like dry but rich soil. They are summer bloomers, attract hummingbirds, and will keep your garden exciting after the spring colors have faded away.
Penstemon linarioides is a spreading, semi-evergreen subshrub, bearing in summer, spike-like racemes of slender, tubular-funnel-shaped, light to dark purple flowers with darker streaks in the throats. Grows to 20 inches tall, 10 inches wide.