Penstemon

[KayJay]

Hi, hope someone can advise.
I picked up a penstemon from the reduced shelf , mainly to take cuttings, 10 cuttings taken and potted up. I wanted then to put plant in garden but noticed that there are 2 black patches on the stem. Anyone know what it is. Should I cut it down below patches and hope for the best. I don't want to bring disease in .

[bearded bloke]

Can you post a picture ? As a general guide, either as you suggest, cut back to good material or treat the stems with a fungicide, in both cases water from the bottom.

[WPG]

KayJay
I've just done exactly the same thing - after seeing Monty Don taking penstemon cuttings I've just taken a dozen from my 'Heavenly Blue' and am following his instructions to mist-spray them 3 times a day (a bit of a fiddle, but hopefully will be rewarded next year)

Not sure about the black patches - if it's near the top of the stem, I'd tend to cut it away.

Hopefully if your 10 cuttings have taken you'll have better, fresher plants anyhow.

[gardening_gal]

I keep reading this as Pokemon.

[KayJay]

Not in my garden���� we have enough pokemons at school !

[Martin H]

I've found that Penstemons do seem to suffer from all sorts of discolouration of stems and leaves, mostly they just shrug it off.

Thanks for reminding me about taking cuttings, last year I did them in autumn and they took ages to root. I saw Monty do it then forgot about it.