Foxgloves

I found myself daydreaming about the foxglove, a lovely flower that is ubiquitous in the English landscape and appears from time to time in my garden. It's an easy plant to grow from seed, and can propagate itself from seed in the garden quite nicely. Looking back, I've grown three types, Digitalis purpurea (common foxglove), Digitalis grandiflora (perennial foxglove), and Digitalis mertonensis (strawberry foxglove). D. grandiflora is perennial and hardy, D. mertonensis is a short-lived perennial (a tetrapolid cross between D. grandiflora and D. purpurea) and D. purpurea is a biennial. Biennials grow foliage in the first year, and flower and set seed in the second year. The biennials die after setting seed. All should be planted in the ground in northern climates, as they will not survive the winter in a pot in zone 3 or colder.
Digitalis grandiflora in the rock garden:

Digitalis also one of those plants we are warned about as being poisonous, due to its content of chemicals that act on the heart. For the same reason, it is one of the most medically famous plants. The plant contains chemicals used in the heart drug digoxin (Lanoxin), a medication used for certain heart diseases (usually atrial fibrillation or heart failure), acting to slow and strengthen the heart beat. Overdose of the drug can result in cardiac arrest. As such, it is a drug (and plant) you must be careful with. I'd imagine the next 20 years of medical research will probably replace this drug with something a little less risky and easier to manage.

An antidote, called Digifab or Digibind, can be given intravenously to mop up toxic levels of digoxin and allow it to exit the body harmlessly via the kidneys. The product monograph is fascinating -- Digifab is made when sheep are injected with a digoxin-derivative attached to a chemical from the keyhole limpet (tiny crustacean that clings to rocks and boat hulls). The sheep serum extract is digested with a bit of pineapple enzyme and the important bits are separated out with a little chromatography, and voila!
Digitalis mertonensis in the raised bed:

Foxglove use was documented in medieval times, as an agent used by witches, when the plant was sometimes called witchs' bells. In the 18th century, a physician (William Withering) noticed that an old woman concocting herbs was having some success in treating edema (likely due to heart failure), and he is credited for discovering that among her collected weeds, digitalis was the effective tonic.
Some self-seeded Digitalis purpurea:

The medicine digoxin is extracted from Digitalis lanata, the wooly foxglove. Apparently, it is cheaper to extract the digoxin from the plant than it is to synthesize the chemical. Presumably, there are medicinal Digitalis farms in existence somewhere.

I have some Digitalis purpurea plants that will flower this year in my perennial beds, but in the interest of trying new and different plants, I would like to try some others. There is a good selection on this American mail order website, which I have ordered from before. I had no idea there were so many kinds! Digitalis are so easy to grow from seed, that I feel wasteful spending good money for them as plants at the nursery.

On the topic of other beautiful flowering plants - here are some pics from another blog, of National Primrose Society Show prize-winning flowers. Amazing.

Delphinium Glory

The Pacific Giant series Delphiniums are in glorious bloom. They are definitely a show-stopper, the most striking blooms since the tulips in springtime. Mine were grown from seed and these plants are 2 to 3 years old. The key to placement of delphiniums is to ensure the bottom two feet of the plants are shielded from view. They have unsightly bottoms and need some shorter perennials at their feet.

The light blue blooms are called "Summer Skies". Clearly so! These flowers look especially good for weathering a hail storm last weekend.

This is "Blue Bird". I bought these seeds from Swallowtail Garden seeds, who has a nice selection of delphiniums.

Papaver somniferum pink and mauve blooms. So pretty! I just love these poppies.

A lovely trio of white Campanula persicifolia, pink Papaver somniferum, and pacific giant delphiniums.

Digitalis x mertonensis, the Strawberry foxglove, grows among other perennials in the raised bed. I understand that D. mertonensis is actually a hybrid of D. purpurea and D. grandiflora, both of which I also grow. D. purpurea is a biennial, producing foliage in the first year and flowers in the second. D. grandiflora, on the other hand, produces yellow flowers and is perennial, producing flowers reliably every year.

I have noticed that D. mertonensis has unique foliage with large dark green leaves with toothed edges. I wasn't sure which digitalis was which until I noticed that they can be distinguished from their leaves. Now I'm interested to see how long D. x mertonensis lives.

A Gardener's Whims

I spent a fair bit of time standing in front of this raised bed today, trying to decide what was wrong with it and what I should do about it.

Now, resident-lawnmower-man can't see anything wrong with it, but then again, he will ask me if his pants and shirt match.

The problem is two-fold:
(a) The Campanula persicifolia grew 4 feet tall and looks like isolated towers among its shorter perennial companions in the middle of the bed. The ones snuggling up to the Pacific giant delphiniums look more appropriate.

Then there is a greater problem: (b) Color clash. The Aruncus dioicus (Goatsbeard) and Filipendula vulgaris flowers are cream-colored and the campanula and columbines are pure white. Oh, the crisis of garden color palettes! I think that I prefer the creams, but I am attempting to separate the two while moving tall plants towards the back of the bed.

Here you can see my unnamed rose bush, which appears to be the same type of rose the neighbours have in their yard -- obviously some very hardy type with purplish-pink flowers. In the foreground is the stalwart fuzzy-headed Artemisia l. "Silvermound". I added the cedar bark mulch recently because I can't plant in that area, having to leave space for the Artemisia.

I have a nice group of Digitalis grandiflora now. I think that these yellow flowers are the hardiest of the foxgloves, though not necessarily the showiest.

This is my "shade bed". It is also a catch-all for all the plants whose flowers clash with the pinks and purples in the rest of the yard. Yes, it's a red-flower seclusion area.