Help with Penstemon

Alfie_

Hi,

I purchased some penstemon (sour grapes) from crocus as 3 x 9cm potted plants. Followed the instructions which was to plant out asap with some compost enriched into soil. I have been watering them daily (but no saturating them when I water as read they don’t like lots of water. Two of the three plants are just flopped over 24/7. I also planted three Macedonica you can see behind them in the photos. All of these and one penstemon are doing fine. Any ideas on the two flopped penstemon? They arrived in such great condition; they all looked like the one that’s currently upright. See pictures below. Thanks for any advice offered. 

Picture from a distance - the 3 penstemon at front and three Macedonica at the back 

This is the good penstemon that’s fully upright and looking great even though it’s in the same bed as the others and I planted it exactly the same way from the same batch:

Close up of flopped ones:

Busy-Lizzie

Maybe they are too wet, they shouldn't need watering every day. A decent drink every few days would be better than little and often. Have you put your finger into the soil to see how wet or dry it is?

Alfie_

Busy-Lizzie said:

Maybe they are too wet, they shouldn't need watering every day. A decent drink every few days would be better than little and often. Have you put your finger into the soil to see how wet or dry it is?

Good idea. I think I need to scrap off the decorative bark and feel underneath. So it’s true that penstemon don’t like too much water then? Thanks 

Fire

My Dark Towers sat in a bucket of water for months and seemed to love it (which is why they stayed in the bucket so long). I can't say how general that is.

Fairygirl

They're also quite small plants, so if they were planted out a while ago, they'll have struggled to thrive unless you have ideal climate and conditions. If you've saturated the soil, that makes it harder for them. Bark is quite a hefty mulch for young perennials.
Even in the same bed, and with the same size/maturity of plant, some will thrive and some won't.
I'd be inclined to lift the small ones and grow them on in pots for a while to let them get a bit sturdier. 

floralies

The root system on those two is probably not grown enough on those two plants to support all the top growth, I would dig them up, re-pot them and trim back the longest stems.

Slow-worm

I grow mine in average soil with a lot of stones & no additional feeding etc, they don't get watered much even when I split them or move them, they do really well as long as they have plenty of sun. I bought a couple more little ones in spring and they're starting to bud now. So yes, personally I'd ditch the mulch and only water them when the soil is quite dry.

Alfie_

Fairygirl said:

They're also quite small plants, so if they were planted out a while ago, they'll have struggled to thrive unless you have ideal climate and conditions. If you've saturated the soil, that makes it harder for them. Bark is quite a hefty mulch for young perennials.
Even in the same bed, and with the same size/maturity of plant, some will thrive and some won't.
I'd be inclined to lift the small ones and grow them on in pots for a while to let them get a bit sturdier. 

Yeh that makes sense. Annoying they tell you to plant them out straight away to avoid getting to acclimatised to indoors. Would you say that’s a general rule for small 9cm potted perennials; keep them indoors until they are somewhat established before painting outside even if the weather outside is frost free? 

Fairygirl

I wouldn't plant out something in a 3 inch pot before about now, and only if it was filling the pot totally, and was a bone hardy plant, and the conditions were suitable. 
Not all penstemons are 100% hardy anyway, and if you're in a wetter, colder part of the country, they're better either grown on for a while, or planted in summer. Grown on, they're usually big enough by about June/July. Even in milder parts of the UK, a plant that small would be vulnerable if it was going out in April or so. 
They wouldn't necessarily need to be in a greenhouse, but keeping them somewhere sheltered from rough weather is always a good idea, until they're a bit bigger and sturdier. 

JennyJ

I also think they'd be better potted on for a while, not indoors but somewhere out of strong winds. Once the Knautia grow (I think that's what you have there behind the penstemons, Knautia macedonica) I think they'll probably fill that space by themselves so you might want to find another spot for the penstemons.

AnniD

I agree, l always plant my perennials on into a 5 or 6 inch pot and wait until l can see roots showing through the bottom of the pot before planting out.  
They don't need any acclimatising as they're kept outside all the time (if overwinter,  in a coldframe, but that's more to do with the wet than the cold tbh).