Hairy Beardtongue - Penstemon hirsutus

A new addition to my pollinator spaces, I have to tell you that I am rather impressed with Hairy Beardtongue. At roughly a foot to two foot tall, this bell shaped flowering plant thrives in well draining gritty soils providing early season blooms that attract and array of pollinators. It is quite often that I will see a bee butt sticking out of one of the many flowers of this plant when the nectar is flowing.

This flower has a native range encompassing the northeast United States and Eastern Canada going out towards the middle of both countries. I have heard that it has decent success growing in USDA zones 3-9.



Personally, I have found this perennial to be an excellent candidate for planting into rock gardens that are not soggy. I have them growing along my house foundation which has a rock barrier around it with really great success. Every year, the patch seems to grow a little bit more through both its seeds and rhizome. It appears to be rather manageable spread and has not concerned me over time.

What are you thoughts on this fun flower?

With a name like Hairy beardtongue I have to say I was expecting to see Hagrid from Harry Potter!!! It looks like it would be very attractive to bees, though, and it definitely has the look of the northeastern US, where I grew up (i can imagine these growing among the rocks on the appalachian trail). A pretty plant, in my opinion!

Here in the Midwest we have different native beardtongues and they are major bee and hummingbird attractors. Penstemon pallidus is smaller and blooms early. Penstemon digitalis (foxglove beardtongue) is a larger with glossy leaves and tall stalks of showy flowers. The husker red penstemon has a red tint and pinkish flowers, making it a popular choice for wildflower gardens. Garden centers also carry breeds of compacted and highly ornamental beardtongues in spring.

Here is an old pic of a native P. digitalis in bloom.https://permies.com/t/141378/Post-flowers-Native-native#1112634

Tim we have wild varieties of penstemon, beardstongue...I think it's hairy?

May, I think mine must be the husker red penstemon that you mention....foliage is deep reds and greens and flowers vary from pale to a darker lavender....and rosette of leaves stays green all winter.

I love it and so do the bumblebees...they crawl in the flower and almost disappear.

Small plants were given to me by someone who bought them for hummingbirds and then has been weeding them out as they spread...that is something I like, that they multiply quickly into clumps.

We have noticed, when drying and saving seed indoors and even outdoors on the plant the seed pods smell like wet dog🫤

Pretty! I was given seeds for hairy and foxglove bearstongue this year and winter sowed them without ever looking at what i would be growing.

Now really looking forward to it blooming next year.

I love watching bumble bees feeding on the flowers. They are so big they kind of get stuck inside somehow. Occasionally there will be smart ones that figure out how to suck honey between the sepals and tubular petals from the outside. It's hilarious to see.