Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips'

Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips' is a Penstemon relative from the southeastern US with stiff spikes of long-lasting, fat, pink flowers that bloom from summer into fall. Reddish stems and bronze-green new growth add to the show. Good in sun or semi-shade. Deer-resistant. Performs best in evenly moist conditions with fertile loamy soil and abundant organic matter.

Imagine turtle lips; now imagine a lustrous rose-pink lipstick... put the two together on 2-3' red stems with deep-green foliage (bronzy when young) and you have this fine selection from North Creek Nurseries. S/M-W

Lustrous, deep green foliage with rose-pink flowers shaped like turtle heads in August and September. Bronze-green early season growth and red stems that persist most of the season are features that distinguish 'Hot Lips' from the species . An excellent Eastern native perennial for moist to wet, rich, humusy soils in part shade. Appreciates a good composted leaf mulch, particularly in sunny areas. Consider pinching back the stem ends in spring to reduce mature plant height, especially if growing plants in strongly shaded areas where they are more likely to need some support. In optimum environments, however, staking is usually not required. Deer ignored this all summer in my garden until later in fall when they were storing up calories for winter reserves

A fantastic plant for partial shade that provides late season color. Easy to grow in average soil, forming a large patch. Our 10 year old clump is 5? wide, so give it space