Penstemon fruticosus – Showy, two-inch lavender blue-purple flowers adorn this perennial subshrub in early summer and may bloom sporadically thereafter. Dark green leaves remain attractive all season long on a slowly spreading slightly mounding form. Shrubby Beardtongue (sounds like a character from Legend or perhaps the Lord of the Rings trilogy!) has settled happily into our full sun rock garden planted in scrabbled and impoverished soil. Cutting grown.