THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607040167
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: 48 lines
FOXGLOVE THAT BLOOMED early have now gone to seed, and the seed is nearly ripe. Later blooming varieties or secondary shoots from the primary plant may still be blooming in your garden but will set seed soon.
Foxglove, or Digitalis, is considered a perennial by some and a biennial by others. There are a few known perennial hybrids that will come back year after year. For the most part, the plant starts one year, blooms the next and then dies.
If you've grown foxglove, you know its seeds blow around your garden, and next season you find tiny foxglove plants in places you may or may not want them.
A few years back, Virginia Beach landscape designer and perennial authority Jean Drescher taught me this lesson about foxglove. Pick the seed as soon as it dries. If you're not sure when it's dry, put a brown kraft bag over the seed stalk, tied tight at the bottom so the seed will not fall out of the bag.
Collect the seed in this manner or however you choose before it flies around your garden. Take the seed to a cold frame or any good spot for starting seed. Sprinkle the seed over the soil and rake it in. If you don't have a proper place, buy a bag of a good ``seed starter mix'' and spread it out in an area that gets morning sun. That needs to be done by mid-August.
In a few weeks, you will have dozens of tiny plants. Thin them out and later this fall transplant the large ones to the area you want them to grow.
Foxglove need some shade in this area, plus a rich, well-drained soil.
If you get large plants this fall and transplant them to where you want them, they'll bloom next year. Other smaller plants can be kept to transplant in the spring for blooming the following year.
At maturity, the plants are usually about 4 to 5 feet tall, although some species remain about 2 to 3 feet tall, while others may reach 7 feet. The old-fashioned plant, often pictured in storybook gardens, grows with a basal rosette of large, simple leaves and an upright stalk covered with bell-shaped flowers.
Pinks and purples are the most common colors, but they also come in white, apricot and other colors.
Foxglove are one of the easiest plants to grow, and you can have them forever, if you gather the seed in the next few weeks and start your own plants. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ROBERT STIFFLER
Foxglove often bloom a bright pink with darker purple spots, but
also come in white, apricot and other colors. by CNB