Hello everyone,

I bought a Penstemon 'White Bedder' from a big online retailer a little over a month ago. The plant was in reasonable shape when it arrived but it had a few weird lumps on its stems. I planted it in a bigger pot and it flowered and put on some new growth and all seemed well. However, a lot of the old leaves went brown and crispy. I then noticed that some of the new growth was lumpy and distorted and some of it wilted too.

The plant is still alive but in poor shape and I'm expecting it to die soon. I contacted customer services and they couldn't tell me what was wrong with it but they did send a replacement. The replacement plant has exactly the same weird lumps albeit to a lesser extent. I contacted customer services again and they refunded me so that's all good.

I am still wondering what's wrong with my plants, though. I couldn't find much through googling. My only guess would be maybe some sort of virus or possibly herbicide damage. Or maybe it could be eelworms? I have no idea what eelworm damage looks like on Penstemon. I'm worried that it could spread to my other plants and am considering throwing the Penstemon out. Any advice?

I'll try to attach some photos

penstemon #1:

replacement penstemon: