Foxglove - Add A Striking Addition To Your Flower Garden
by John Yazo
The foxglove flowers (Digitalis purpurea), Digitalis is latin for "finger of a glove", which refers to the shape of the flowers. It's flower will add brilliant color to any garden or landscape. This old garden gem have spikes of distinctive, spotted or freckle-throat type bells that stud it's flowering stem.
This flowering plant is classified as a biennial with leaves that form a rosette close to the ground there first year and bloom the second year, which is normally there final year unless growing conditions are favorable and they could last another year or two. Foxglove plants will reseed themselves, so don't get the new growth confused with a matured plant.
Foxglove plants are best grown in hardness zones 4 -8, and being a plant that will reseed itself, they can naturalize themselves in an area. This tall, slender plant grows between 2 - 5 feet in height, 1 - 2 feet in width and have numerous tubular shaped flower blooms on a spike with a range of colors from creams,lavenders, lilacs, peaches, pinks, purple, yellows, and speckled mixes of just about all the abound. Flowers appear in the late spring to the summer months, depending on your area.
The growing conditions that the foxglove prefers is an area of partial shade with an organic soil structure that is well drained, acidic and rich in humus, but will tolerate dry locations in the shade once established.
This plant is an excellent choice when incorporated into a landscapes design because of it's height and the unique color combination's it can provide. The foxglove is ideal to add distinctive color to the back of any garden and is a flower that will attract the hummingbird, bees and other beneficial insects, along with wildlife to your yard and gardens.
The foxglove plant is one of the most poisonous plants that are commonly grown in home flower gardens and should be fully researched and understood before planted as a part of your landscape or gardens. Do not grow them in areas where children normally play or spend time in the yard. The powerful drug digitalin is derived from this important medicinal plant and used as a heart stimulant to treat heart disease. The entire plant is poisonous, including the roots, and the leaves of this plant are particularly toxic and proved to be potentially life threatening if simply chewed, this should not be overlooked.
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