ahamiltongarden:

INTRIGUING DIGITALIS, OR FOXGLOVES

I could never have a garden without the biennial foxgloves. Long associated with poison and witches, they evoke the mood of medieval physic gardens and monks’ cloisters. Foxglove seedlings must be planted in summer to flower the following spring. And what a payoff it is. The regal digitalis sprires are glorious in combination with roses and other flowers. I like to have both white and pink varieties. When the main spires have finished, secondary flower shoots appear to extend the show. I usually pull the plants out and then put in their place some kind of summer or autumn flowering annual such as cosmos or zinnia. While these plants self seed in England in dappled woodland, I have not managed to achieve any free seedlings in our garden because of the mulching. As an experiment, I cut back a few of the foxglove plants instead of pulling them out last spring. I am interested to see how they perform this year compared to the newer plants. I have mentioned in another post that we also have the perennial foxglove ‘Polka Dot Polly’, which produces lovely burnt apricot spires. I will show you these when they are out as their effect in the garden is different to the stiffer biennials.