Sweet on ‘sour grapes’ and bringing some late colour to your garden

Certain varieties of Penstemons can bring colour and life to a garden late in the year, says Peter Dowdall

Often overlooked as a flowering perennial, I first fell in love with Penstemons when I saw the variety ‘sour grapes’ as a child. Beautiful tall stems of tubular flowers are produced during late summer and all the way through autumn.

The colour of ‘sour grapes’ is fabulous because it’s a bit different, blue, grey, silver and mauve are all represented in each flower, it’s a bit muted but still fresh and colourful enough to bring life to the garden late in the year.