Species of penstemons (which, in case you have forgotten, are Snapdragons (Scrophulariaceae)) are in bloom somewhere throughout at least half of the year. I've found a few real treasures in bloom in May...
...Foothills Penstemon (P. heterophyllus) is a California species with three varieties: var. heterophyllus, australis, and purdyi. It/they grow in the Coastal Ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills. The species I saw was of the heterophyllus variety ... I think.
Foothills Penstemon could be described as your basic, prototypical penstemon: it has long - up to one and a half inches - tubular flowers that are a thick, syrupy blue to violet in color, with some magenta highlights. Unlike its high elevation cousins, which usually stop growing at about two feet, this penstemon keeps growing, sometimes topping out a Shaquile O'Neal five feet tall.
Being a perennial, it grows from a woody stem; it has narrow, pointed leaves; the flowers branch off the stem every few inches.
Meanwhile Alberta Penstemon (P. albertinus), another lovely blue species, is blooming in Montana, Idaho, and a wee bit of Alberta and British Columbia. Its flowers, growing in whorls in the upper leaf axils, range in color from pink to blue. The throat of the flowers is pale with dark lines to guide insects to the good bits. It has been known to hybridize with P. humilis in Idaho, and P. wilcoxii in Montana. (Which is kind of a flowery metaphor for the behavior of a harlot, huh?) It typically gets no taller than about a foot. The leaves, while still lanceolate, are a bit on the more ovate side.
And then there's Palmer's Penstemon (P. palmeri), a big, showy, inflated, sweetly fragrant species that grows in rocky areas from southeastern California across southern Nevada and a lot of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. I've found it in both California and Arizona.
It grows to four feet or more in height; the leaves are bluish, thick, and as sharply toothed as those of a shark. The flowers are big, inflated balloons ... another common name is Balloon Flower ... in shades of pink, with reddish guide lines. The sterile stamen is as heavily bearded as ol' Uncle Charlie's ears, but this flower's ear hair is golden.
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