Penstemon sour grapes won't bloom

[Sterling]

I have a lot of them - in various locations around my house. Variety of sun/shade conditions. Mostly sun with a bit of shade. None of them have bloomed this year or last year. Other flowers close to them bloom and do well...

They are thick and bushy. Get the same water and food that their close neighbors get. They did bloom year before last and were just beautiful. I have a bunch of Husker's Red Penstemon that have done wonderfully.

What gives? Any requirements I don't know about? I am in Atlanta and it does get pretty cold here. Down to 10 or 12 degrees F some winters. A lot of the low twenties. I add this because a lot of people seem to think we are very close to Miami...

I've done my net research and now it's time to ask the real people.

TIA

[gregpresley]

[Sterling]

well, my "huskers red" Penstemon is in the same area with the lavenders

- which I keep on the dry side - and those Penstemon are doing very well.

Atlanta has had 5 years of bad drought so I have had to water some of the flower beds, including those with the "sour grapes".

I'll try moving a couple of clumps to the "dryer" flower bed areas and see. They are healthy, bushy and green - just no flowers...

Thanks. It is worth a try...

gregpresley wrote:

[FACE]

Got any hydrangeas? I have mostly concentrated my watering on them since they look so absolutely pitiful when Atlanta area is dry which has been most of the time in the last

5 years. But hydrangeas are the fastest to respond to watering -- like 30 minutes. It is almost an instant gratification thing to water a drooping hydrangea.

FACE

[paghat]

If the soil never dries out or is along a watering system, that'd do it all righty. But blooms would also be difficult to achieve in too rich a soil with nitrogen fertilizer which penstemons do not want (regular fertilizing would induce big thick leafy appearance devoid of flowers). What Sterling describes as "same water and food that their close neighbors get" could well be conditions both of too much water & too much fertilizer, which would be a bloom-squashing combination. The other bloom-stoppers are too much shade, & when a clump is a few years old & the clump extremely large, it will bloom decreasingly well until not at all, & will probably need to be discarded & replaced with a younger plant, possibly with well-rooted cuttings prepared in advance.

-paghat the ratgirl