Garden plant ID

[Maggi Young]

Thanks Friends - so it's Penstemon 'Darngoodgardenhybrid ' then 

The little stems I pulled to photograph are making roots in a jar of water so I'll be able to see how it grows a couple of hundred yards up the hill from its previous home.

[drtd]

It looks a lot like a native species we have here in the states. Penstemon cardwellii. Similar habit, color, lip, and dentate pattern on the leaf margin.

[David Nicholson]

According to Bob Nold's book Penstemon cardwellii grows ".....to 60cm and as much as five times that in width.........."?

[drtd]

I'm sure it could, but I've never seen it anywhere close to that size in the wild. In a garden, I could see that. The plant would have to be pretty old though to reach that kind of size. In the rock garden at my college they have a 10 year old specimen and it barely topped out at 10 cm tall and 30 cm wide.

[Maggi Young]

My friend's plant is around twenty five years old, I reckon.  It doesn't go much above 25cms at flowering and the spread is around 170cm - would be more if it hadn't been cut back occasionally.
The leaves are quite big,  bigger than any mentioned so I think it must be a hybrid to be so chunky.

Next mystery  would be to work out where it was sourced from all those years ago  -  A search too far, I think!

[Anthony Darby]

Anyone recognise this weed?

[Maggi Young]

Anyone recognise this weed?

Thought for the day:

If you don't know what it is, how do you know it's a weed ?

[fermi de Sousa]

Petasites?
NZ megaherb?
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

If you don't know what it is, how do you know it's a weed ?

It's in the wrong place (not in my garden, I might add).

Doesn't look right for Petasites, which tends to have heart shaped leaves.

[ChrisB]

Going back to that penstemon Maggi, I'm just reading the two part bulletin article 'Penstemons: a gardeners guide June & Dec 1994 by Geoffrey Charlesworth who says 'you can grow 10 new penstemons every year for 20 years and not exhaust the genus!' And I think he's only talking about the N.American shrubby kind so there are a lot of them... And they've been popular for a long time, the article is 20 years old to start with...

[Maggi Young]

Oh yes, there are plenty of those Penstemons! 
The late lamented, Yorkshire-bornhttp://www.bnargs.org/obitgeoffrey.pdf Geoffrey Charlesworth (who died in 2008 in America, where he lived for many years) was, of course, a most excellent author who made a great impact.
Those articles you mention are in the AGS bulletin  - what a pity they are not available online for a wider audience.

I remain curious, however, as to how my chum's  hybrid got here to Aberdeen at that time - we know the history of the house ownership  which yields no clue. 

[Geoforce]

Anyone recognise this weed?

Furry critter.  Looks a lot like a seedling hollyhock (Alcea).

Geo

[Maggi Young]

Furry critter.  Looks a lot like a seedling hollyhock (Alcea).

Geo

It does indeed - not a weed then, Anthony???   

[ChrisB]

It's a very good article and I'm trying to read it carefully so I understand them a bit better.  I read pt 2 first lol, then went to search for the first part.  I've got a few penstemons, one in a sink that's not been touched since we came here 19 years ago now.  I'd love to id it... I find them quite difficult on the whole, but perhaps because I haven't understood their requirements! 

Agree Maggi, those journals should be on line.  Such a shame...

[Anthony Darby]

Not a hollyhock. The leaves are not symmetrical. I've grown hollyhocks and I've never seen leaves like these. The leaf veins should all originate from where the stem joins the leaf. I may be wrong. Also, the gardener would know if there were hollyhocks about and would put it down to a stray seedling.