Foxglove: Digitalis purpurea

From the first time I saw one, the complex coloration and bell-shaped flowers of the foxglove attracted me, and I knew I wanted some in my garden. They are one of the first plants I planted last year, and this June they are blooming extravagantly. They are happy where I’ve planted them, growing in partial shade. A local nursery explained that foxglove is a biennial that acts like a perennial, flowering in its second year and then self-sowing. Fortunately, the plant produces up to two million seeds during its lifetime. I have a cream one and a mauve one, and I didn’t know that the cream will revert to purple during the reseeding cycle. The heart medication digitalis is made from its leaves, and you can murder someone with an overdose, in the best tradition of Agatha Christie’s stories. The plant is also poisonous to animals, but I didn’t know that bees love it, along with other insects, and hummingbirds. The flower’s inside is florescent, and this florescence, which can be seen under a black light, guides bees like a “landing strip.” Fairies figure prominently in legends surrounding the foxglove, no surprise given its magical appearance and native woodland habitat. A Modern Floral says that people once believed the dappling on the flower were fingerprints left by fairies, leading to the name folksglove. My favorite story is that bad fairies gave the blossoms to foxes to muffle their footsteps as they hunted.