Despite me never intentionally growing or sowing them here, a couple of years ago one foxglove appeared in a strange spot, right outside the shed door. This year there are a dozen in various places all around the borders. I'm so pleased to see them as they grow wild in many places but not so often in (usually) dry Suffolk. Most are traditional dark pink/purple but a few are a lighter purple and white. Self seeded don't have as many small flowers on the stem as those grown specifically but they are still very good for bees.
Common Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) have lots of local and traditional names around the country - Witches or Goblins fingers, Our Lady's gloves, Dead Mans bells, Ladies fingers. They are native to Europe, Western Asia and Northwest Africa.
Foxgloves are one of those plants that are both poisonous and also used medicinally and were used in connection with heart failure and slowing excessive heart rate. There is a long description on Wikipedia. HERE
And of course Cecily Mary Barker has a Foxglove Flower Fairy for Summer
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Sue
Lots and lots of them here in Brittany too (Finistère, Land's End), but only purple ones.
ReplyDeleteMaguy
I never had any when the children were little and then didn't really think about it, but they do look lovely and I wonder whether one round the front would look nice - or in the middle bed to give a bit of height. Hmmm - thanks, Sue, this gives me a few ideas. xx
ReplyDeleteI love foxgloves and have wild ones that picked my garden to self seed in. The hedgerows are so beautiful with the towering pink spikes.
ReplyDeleteFoxgloves take me back to my childhood, when they seemed impossibly tall. I am really pleased that they seed themselves about in my garden and this year one growing next to the compost bin has shot up to well over 6 feet, so I really do feel like a child again!
ReplyDeleteThey call them Fairy Fingers in West Cork. Smashing photo.
ReplyDeleteI have lived in this bungalow for 10 years and never had a foxglove in the garden. This year I have 6 growing and beginning to flower, all in different areas of the garden. The seed must have blown in on the wind . . . and I love them. Hope they continue to spread.
ReplyDeleteSo it really is a good year for them everywhere.
DeleteWe have let a clump grow in the vegetable patch (to be removed when they seed). They are truly magnificent this year. Lots of yellow bees' bottoms visible inside. There is also a large self-sown patch of rhubarb and custard coloured antirrhinums.
ReplyDeleteBecause of our high rainfall they grow here in wild abandon and certainly attract the bees. They grow to a great height and the usual colours are pinks, purples, whites and yellows.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great flower for the bees and yes, so prolific this year. We had a gorgeous pale pink one spring up in the garden, so welcome as I've not grown any flowers from seed this year.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
So pretty!
ReplyDeleteI love to watch bumble bees working busily inside a fox glove. I had a large one growing. Your pictures reminded me to wonder what happened to it. Hmmmmm....
ReplyDeleteSorry that I can't read your blog now it has gone private. I shall miss hearing about your house building
DeleteSue, ask Thelma for my e-mail and drop me a line. I shall send you an invitation right away.
DeleteDebby_hornburg@yahoo.com
DeleteYour Foxgloves are beautiful. I've got several growing in a single clump at the edge of a stone wall. Like you, I did not plant Foxgloves. I will let them go to seed and hope they return next year.
ReplyDeleteI planted some once and they self seeded and then disappeared the following year. What a disappointment as I really liked them. This was when I lived at The Lodge and had a bigger perennial garden than now. At least lupines grow here which I couldn't grow in Maryland.
ReplyDeleteBought a posh dark coloured one once, supposed to be a perennial one, but sadly it never returned to grace our garden.
ReplyDeleteFoxgloves grow wild in the woods here. Lovely to see.
ReplyDeleteWe call them foxygloves :) I love the dark pink ones. Xx
ReplyDeleteFoxgloves have a sort of mysterious beauty about them that I find fascinating. I first grew to know them when we lived next to an ancient apple orchard that was full of them. They seemed sort of medieval somehow. Enjoy :)
ReplyDeleteI have Cecile Mary barker flower fairy print of nettles
ReplyDeleteI have always admired Foxgloves but I don't see them here or at least I haven't been able to find them.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I love foxgloves! I’ve only successfully kept them in my gardens twice in all these years. Yours are beautiful! -Jenn
ReplyDeleteI was recommended them for a difficult spot in my mother's garden. The foxgloves had other ideas and seeded themselves in all sorts of other places, where they flourished for many years. An interesting Foxglove fact gleaned from the little information boards which the Cambridge Botanical Garden puts out to entertain children: The lower lip of the flower has a specially-designed surface which provides a good grip for bees. This aging child thought it was interesting anyway!
ReplyDeleteAm so envious. I have never been able to get them to self seed in my currently garden (have been trying for 15 years) and yet they used to be like a weed the way they could seed in some of my old gardens. I love them.
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful flowers. There are a couple that always seem to pop up in the woods where I walk.
ReplyDeleteI love Foxgloves, I really need to put some in next year when I change the long raised bed over to shrubs and flowers. I love watching the bees disappearing into each flower and then reversing out.
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