Penstemon serrulatus - Flickr - peganum (2)

Description:

Description: One of the plants resulting from seed received from The Hardy Plant Society and the Alpine Garden Society seed exchanges. The packets were labelled Penstemon purpusii, euglaucus and gormannii but I've ended up with three trays full of this, which although pleasant enough in itself is not a patch on the three species it was supposed to be. It could be an honest mistake I suppose. Misidentification happens quite a lot in society seed exchanges (and commercial seed merchants too for that matter) and is a constant source of irritation to nurseries but this is not the simple substitution of one species for another. It looks deliberate. So why bother? Society members are entitled to extra packets if they donate a certain number of seed packets to the scheme, so packaging up the seed of one common variety as a number of rarer varieties might seem worthwhile, and they might imagine there's some prestige to be got from donating lots of rare varieties. Date: 12 May 2011, 10:16. Source: Penstemon serrulatus?. Author: peganum from Small Dole, England.