Penstemon campanulatus Willd. var. pulchellus (Lindl.) Voss

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘[Pentstemon pulchellum] requires the protection of the greenhouse in winter, but in summer does best planted out in a border, where it will flower in great abundance till the appearance of frost.’  [LBC no.1438/1830].  Don gives a date of introduction of 1827 for P. pulchellum.  ‘A handsome, half-hardy perennial, native of Mexico, whence seeds were brought, in 1826, to Mr. Tate, of Sloane Street, in whose Nursery our drawing was made, in July last, by Mr. R. P. Staples, to whom the same collection owes many other valuable plants.  We understand that it throve exceedingly, planted in a warm border exposed to the south.  This is very near P. campanulatum, from which it differs principally in its corolla being paler, more inflated, and destitute of glands, which abound on the corolla of P. campanulatum. The leaves of this plant are also less finely toothed, not so much acuminate, and of a more oblong figure.’  [BR f.1138/1828].

History at Camden Park

Listed only as a hand written entry in an 1850 catalogue held at Camden Park, inscribed ‘Wm. Macarthur 1850-51’, in Macarthur’s hand, on the front cover and numbered 179/4.  Macarthur included P. pulchellus among desiderata to Loddiges’ Nursery on the 6th January 1845 [MP A2933-2 p.28] and this is a likely source.  Certainly grown in the gardens at this time.

Notes