Plant of the week: Foxgloves

They light up the garden and now’s an ideal time to plant them

There’s something rather brilliant about foxgloves. With minimum expertise and effort, when planted in drifts their collective spires transform the most mundane of plantings, turning it into something dramatic and spectacular. Our British native Digitalis

purpurea is an adaptable plant, producing its stately spires of tubular pink or white, darkspotted blooms in the poorest of soil, as long as it retains some moisture in either sun or shade.

Breeders have also created a range of other tones, from peach or apricot to pure white, with various spotting patterns and flower arrangements. Other species with different flower colours, such as yellow or bronze tones, have also become an established part of the floral repertoire. The plants form clumping rosettes of leaves, each forming a single flower spike, usually blooming in succession. Bees love them!

Bronze forms, with slender spires and narrow or white-felted leaves, do best in sunnier positions, among border perennials, while leafier kinds, particularly D. purpurea, are better in shade. If you want them to self-seed allow seed pods to open, otherwise cut them down, or thin out the spikes after the flowers are over. With shorterlived types try to establish rosettes of different ages, to help maintain a succession of bloom.

Digitalis are generally biennial, sometimes annual, especially if sown early in the year, or perennial, sometimes short-lived lasting around three to four years.

They’re easy to raise from seed but can be bought as young plants.