Re: Foxgloves


Louise,

D. purpurea is either a biennial or a short-lived perennial.  I
occasionally have plants that return for a 2nd year of bloom.  Can
always tell if they are going to because the basal rosette of foliage
stays in good condition after bloom.  If they aren't going to return,
the whole plant rather browns out when they go to seed.

I have seen very nice borders of only the white form - which I also
have mixed in with everything from pale lavender through almost cream
and pink to purple...really love all of them, so have no impetus to
rouge them out as much as I'd like an all white border of them.  Mine
have been reseeding for something like 20 years and I seem to get
quite a variety, although this year, for the first time, one spot
turned out to be all purple..interesting, I thought...mostly it's
quite a mix.  

If you want to select for color, you need to do it before they set
seed.  I just let mine go to seed and then cut or pull the stems and
wave them around where I want them to grow and they show up where
they want to grow...sometimes it's the same general place as I
selected and sometimes it's not.  If I am being diligent, I thin them
out, but usually I let the law of the wild prevail and the strongest
survive.  I always enjoy the surprise of where they are going to show
up and bloom.  This year has been a particularly good year for them
in several places.

D. purpurea only has flowers on one side - and, now you mention it,
they seem to know which way they ought to face; think it may have
something to do with the direction the most light is coming from, but
that's just a guess.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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> From: Louise <louise@the-english-family.freeserve.co.uk>
> Date: Thursday, June 08, 2000 2:49 AM
> I grew some from seed two years ago and then again last year
> (as I've only ever treated them as biennial I need to do
> that to get some every year).  They were some lovely pastel
> colours.  This year, I've got the self seeded babies and
> I've got one or two pastel pinks, a few more beautiful clear
> whites, but most of them are the plain ordinary pink/purple.
> Somebody told me recently that this will happen more and
> more, the babies will revert back to this colour.  (Just
> read Claire's later post, where she says we need to remove
> the ordinary colours to avoid this happening - presumably
> before the foxglove sets seed?  Not sure I could bear to do
> this, I wouldn't have many plants left in my garden this
> summer.)
> 
> Last weekend at Wakehurst Place I saw a beautiful display of
> Digitalis Excelsior Group, beautiful, beautiful pastel
> colours, and such enormous blooms.  I think I might buy a
> packet and sew them now in the garden.  They really were
> spectacular.
> 
> Now, can someone tell me why something strange happens with
> my Foxgloves.  They only flower down one side of their
> stem - if you go round the back of them, there are no
> flowers.  I've got them on both sides of my garden path, but
> 
> on both sides, their flowers face towards the path.  How do
> they know where the path is, therefore the direction I'm
> going to view them from?  They could just as easily be
> facing away from the path, but they haven't, not once, in
> three years of growing them.  Very strange.
> 
> Louise, Surrey, England
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
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