FOXGLOVE
Family SCROPHULARIACEAE
Digitalis purpurea
Biennial
There are biennial and perennial forms of Foxglove.
Digitalis purpurea is a biennial, sometimes perennial,
a native of western and Central Europe, including
Britain and Scandinavia.
The leaves are large, ovate and downy.
The flower-stems vary from two to five feet, bearing
many slightly drooping tubular flowers open at
the mouth, varying in colour from rose-purple
in the wild form, to shades of pink, salmon, cream
and white, all spotted, in the cultivated strains.
The best known of these is the Shirley strain,
there is also a pure white unspotted form of particular
beauty, and a Digitalis p. var. campanulata, with upper
flowers united to form a big, bell-shaped bloom.
Useful for cutting.
Seed is best sown on a shady border in April outdoors,
seedlings being transplanted to shady nursery
beds, three inches apart, in June, and finally
transferred to flowering positions in September
to October.
Propagate from seeDigitalis
The flowering season is in summer.
See Also : Foxglove
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