{"id":289,"date":"2012-01-30T05:14:30","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T13:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=289"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:33","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:33","slug":"guilt-free-foxgloves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/guilt-free-foxgloves\/","title":{"rendered":"Guilt Free Foxgloves"},"content":{"rendered":"

GUILT FREE FOXGLOVES
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I really should write a column about growing tomatoes.\u00a0 The catalogs are coming in fast and furious now, and they are full of tomatoes and other edibles.\u00a0 Even nurseries like White Flower Farm, longtime bastion of ornamental plants, are selling at least a few tomatoes, strawberry plants and berry bushes.\u00a0 It is heartening that people are growing their own food and I will undoubtedly do a bit of that myself once again this year.\u00a0 I will also undoubtedly write about the experience.\u00a0 But today it is gray and soggy outside and writing about tomato plants just doesn’t offer enough inspiration.\u00a0 Besides, yesterday, a new foxglove stole my fickle gardener’s heart and I find myself dreaming about flowers.\u00a0 As for tomatoes, I believe I’ll emulate Scarlett O’Hara, of Gone With the Wind<\/em>, who said, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”\u009d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today, I will concentrate on the new foxglove, which was originally given the varietal name ‘Waldigone’, but will be sold in this country under the invalid but more evocative name,’Gold Crest’.\u00a0 In the fetching catalog photographs, ‘Gold Crest’ has sunset colored blossoms–gold with overtones of peachy pink.\u00a0 I suspect that the proportion of gold to peach and the intensity of both colors depends on soil chemistry and sunlight, but even if the tones are less intense than the catalog pictures, they will be lovely.\u00a0 Like many new introductions, ‘Gold Crest’ is a compact form, reaching only two feet in height.\u00a0 That means it won’t have to be staked in most garden situations, saving the gardener time and effort.\u00a0 It also makes it a good container subject and since container gardening continues to be extremely popular, ‘Gold Crest’ will be a winner among those with empty pots and semi-shady situations.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone who gardens knows foxglove, a time-honored cottage garden favorite.\u00a0 The foxgloves that most of us know best are colorful varieties of the common foxglove, Digitalis purpurea.\u00a0 These grow tall–up to four feet in good situations–and like partial shade and regular moisture.\u00a0 They are billed as biennials; plants that form a basal rosette of leaves in the first year of growth, then flower, set seed and die the second year.\u00a0 Fortunately, foxgloves, like hollyhocks and many other biennial plants, self seed readily and sometimes act more like short lived perennials.\u00a0 After a few years after planting even a single specimen, most gardeners have a steady supply of self-sown plants in a variety of colors.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Digitalis purpurea has one big drawback–its leaves are big, coarse and generally lacking in refinement.\u00a0 This can be remedied, as it is easy to use other, lower-growing plants as partial camouflage.\u00a0 The tall flower spikes are the star of the show, anyway.\u00a0 Still, modern gardeners want multi-tasking cultivars, so breeders have set out to provide them.\u00a0 This is probably the route taken by English breeder David Tristram, who gave the world ‘Gold Crest.’
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tristram took two digitalis species, the perennial, yellow-flowered Digitalis grandiflora, which hails originally from Europe and western Asia; and Digitalis obscura, native to Spain, which also features yellow flowers veined in red.\u00a0 Grandiflora grows up to three feet tall, while obscura reaches only two feet, so the ‘Gold Crest’ offspring, resembles the latter in stature.\u00a0 Both species have relatively narrow leaves, giving the plants a more graceful appearance than common foxgloves.\u00a0 The sunset color may come from the obscura parent as well, as there are obscura varieties on the market with yellow\/orange flowers.\u00a0 Tristram’s hybrid blooms more than once per season and is most likely a short-lived perennial.\u00a0 ‘Gold Crest’ may self seed or not, but if it does, the seedlings will not look like the parent plant.\u00a0 Still, if self-seeding happens, the results might be interesting.\u00a0 I am inclined to let nature take its course, especially in the first year.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am not sure you can have too much foxglove in the garden.\u00a0 In addition to the colorful purpurea varieties and hybrids, which flower in shades ranging from white, through yellows, pale pink and purple; I have the lovely Digitalis x mertonensis, a grandiflora\/purpurea hybrid with deep pink flowers.\u00a0 ‘Pam’s Choice’, a purpurea hybrid livens things up with individual flowers that are white on the outside and maroon purple on the inside.\u00a0 The lips are accented with freckles of the same shade.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Old fashioned species foxgloves tend to have flowers that droop, either a little or a lot, depending on how tightly clustered they are on the stalk.\u00a0 Modern hybrids have been bred to produce big, brassy, outward-facing blossoms.\u00a0 I think both have their place, though the outward-facing flowers catch the eye more readily in arrangements.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can probably grow foxgloves perfectly well in a disciplined, formal garden, but I rarely see them used that way.\u00a0 Perhaps this is because of the uncouth leaves.\u00a0 In my undisciplined beds and borders, they pop up everywhere and I am glad of it.\u00a0 You can obtain ‘Gold Crest’ from Heronswood Nursery, 300 Park Avenue<\/span>, Warminster, PA 18974-4818<\/span>; (866) 578-7948; www.heronswood.com<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 No paper catalog. \u00a0Most retail nurseries and garden centers stock purpurea varieties and hybrids in the spring.\u00a0 For an interesting, more extended selection, try Bluestone Perennials, <\/span>7211 Middle Ridge Rd, Madison, OH 44057; (800).852.5243; <\/font><\/font>www.bluestoneperennials.com<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.
\n<\/span><\/font><\/font>\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GUILT FREE FOXGLOVES \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I really should write a column about growing tomatoes.\u00a0 The catalogs are coming in fast and furious now, and they are full of tomatoes and other edibles.\u00a0 Even nurseries like White Flower Farm, longtime bastion of ornamental plants, are selling at least a few tomatoes, strawberry plants and berry bushes.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1502,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/1502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}