Penstemon
Sue Higham
Posts: 85
in Plants
Last year I took several cuttings from a Penstemon. They rooted successfully and over-wintered well in the greenhouse, together with the parent plant. During the warm spell in early March I brought them all out and put them in a sheltered spot to harden off. The result is there's a bit of die back on the parent plant and its stems look healthy, but the leaves on all the cuttings turned brown and the stems look to be dying back. They all have a good root system, though. Have I lost them? 
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I'd pop them back into the greenhouse for a bit more tlc.
Early March is too early in most parts of UK to start hardening off.IMHO
Thanks Hostafan ... I'll try that. Any other year I'd have said March was too early as well, but it's been such a mild winter (even here in East of Scotland!) that I was worried the greenhouse was too warm for them all! I have verbena and echinacea that were all treated the same but it's only the penstemon that has suffered.
Just like you Sue, I took cuttings last year. I left them outside overwinter and saw they were looking a bit 'tired', so I potted them on and popped them in my g/house about 2 weeks ago, already there's fresh new growth appearing.
Had almost no frost over last winter and I've still got last years trailing pelergoniums in flower.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thanks for the suggestions. Penstemon back in greenhouse - fingers crossed!