Digitalis Polkadot Polly

Well branched spikes with flowers crowding the stem. An intriguing deep rose and apricot with a yellow lip. Being sterile the blooms last uncommonly well and continue to display well into the summer.

How to Grow Digitalis or Foxglove

Digitalis, or Foxgloves, are one of the most distinctive, quintessential cottage garden plants, typically found adding height and structure to the back of a border.

Foxgloves prefer a shady spot and will happily naturalise in open woodland where they form delightful drifts of colour. Although associated with woodland, foxgloves are essentially a hedgerow plant, thriving best in dappled shade and perfectly at home in positions where light varies throughout the day.

Most Foxgloves are biennial, establishing and growing leaves in the first year, followed by flowers and seed production in the second year.

Digitalis seed can be sown indoors in late winter to spring or in late summer to autumn for over-wintering, alternatively Foxglove seed can be sown directly outdoors from late summer to autumn.

Sow the seeds on the surface of a peaty soil and press in lightly. Do not cover the seed as it needs light to germinate. Keep moisture without over-wetting. Digitalis will usually germinate within 14 to 28 days at around 20°C (68°F)

Prick out each seedling as it becomes large enough to handle and transplant into individual 3 inch pots to grow on. Gradually acclimatise to outdoor conditions for a couple of weeks before planting out, spaced 12 inches apart, once all risk of frost has gone.

A word of caution, the whole foxglove plant is toxic. Fortunately it tastes very bitter and causes irritation in the mouth, but extreme care should be taken to avoid children or pets ingesting any part of the plant and gloves should be worn when handling plants or seeds.