Monday 2 July 2012

Three interesting penstemons

Three old fashioned penstemons with a curious story.
Top, Mother of Pearl. Because nurseries abbreviated this to MoP, it sometimes appeared as Mrs Mop.


Second, Stapleford Gem, an iridescent blue, deeper than Mother of Pearl. Nurseries would abbreviate this to SG.

Third, Sour Grapes (below), also abbreviated as SG. And guess what, the two became confused. Two thirds of penstemons bought as Sour Grapes even today turn out to be Stapleford Gem. The proper genealogies of the two plants was sorted out by the Royal Horticultural Society in the 1990s.



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