PENSTEMON DIGITALIS `HUSKER RED`

Perennial plant of the year in 1996, this easy to grow, easy care American Beauties winner performs in the garden despite you! Distinctive with its deep red to purple-red foliage, it emerges from the ground in the spring garden with stiffly upright stems that contrast markedly with the developing greenery around it. These stems form a narrow upright clump that tops itself with buds as late spring approaches. Snowy white, tubular flowers with just a hint of pink emerge in early June and continue into July delighting the neighborhood hummingbirds and butterflies with their nectar and delighting you with a color show that changes by the minute while seed heads provide food for cardinals and finches in fall and winter. ‘Husker Red’ is drought tolerant and shrugs off poor, sandy soils without missing a performance beat in any sunny to partial shade garden.