Leonie Cornelius glories in the fabulous fox glove
With their vivid spires laden down with bell-shaped blooms, all you can do is...
June is a wonderful time for native hedgerows and borders. All over the country an explosion of magenta-speckled, pink spires are brightening up even the dullest roadsides. Almost everyone will recognise these elegant spires of colour with their impressive bell-shaped flowers that are ubiquitous in spring and summer.
The foxglove, or digitalis, is one of my favourite plants of all time. Every year festival show-gardens feature this stunning plant. From the subtle native purpurea variety to the more showy white and maroon speckled ‘Pam’s Choice’, and the silvery hues of the Alba varieties, there are a range of colours and varieties to choose from. The plant pictured below is the familiar native purpurea variety.
Within garden design I am a big fan of the foxglove for many reasons. I love the shape of the flower, the elegant way it rises out of a border and gives height and elevation to a planting scheme. It also adds a touch of naturalism to schemes that could sometimes feel a bit too formulaic. This is the reason why many designers with a contemporary design approach introduce foxgloves in planting schemes. It’s a plant that hints at a certain wildness, a native planting style and gives a vertical element as well as a softness to a design.
From early summer these beautiful flower spikes rise from rosette bases. Often growing in groups, these short-lived plants offer fantastic height and self-seed freely if given the right conditions. They have a tendency to cover large areas, especially where it has just been cleared or where trees have been cut down. A spot with a bit of dappled shade is an ideal position though in my own garden they often pop up in sunny spots, too, and do really well there. They are a biennial, which means that the first year they will not flower but build a cushion of fleshy basal leaves. Then in their second year, they will put on their show of colour, with flowered spires rising up to 1.5 metres in heigh in impressive pinks, yellows and whites. Some say the name foxglove developed from the original term which was ‘folksglove’, with folks meaning fairies. There are many stories about the Foxglove and often they feature fairies who were said to live inside the flowers. Such stories say the reason the flowers bend so gracefully is that they are bowing in deference to all beautiful beings who pass them. According to such folklore, foxgloves will ward off evil when grown in your garden yet are considered unlucky when brought into the house.
An interesting fact about this plant is that medicine made from the foxglove is used to treat cardiac or heart problems. It is strange to think that though its powerful medicine helps to improve thousands of lives, the plant itself is extremely poisonous. Fortunately, ingesting it immediately causes diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, so it is actually quite hard to poison oneself with it. However it is still a plant I would not grow where small children play. I always think education and awareness is everything as so many plants in our gardens and the wild have poisonous properties. When working with them in your own garden it is a good idea to wear gloves, particularly when you are cutting the innocent-looking flowered spikes back to the base after flowering.