September 25, 2003

Here’s another plant variety, Foxgloves’ that can be exciting to grow, writes Zahrah Nasir

Stately spires of nodding foxgloves dancing in the breeze are a wonderful sight to behold, and not many people seem to realize that they can be grown in quite a wide variety of climates.

Foxgloves, (botanically known as ‘Digitalis’ and members of the huge ‘Scrophulariaceae’ family of plants), can be grown as annual, bi-annual, or in some cases, perennial plants. One variety ‘Digitalis purpurea’ with purple/rose spikes of flowers, and the more rarely seen ‘Digitalis purpurea var. alba’, white flowered, contain the important drug, digitalin, which was often used in the treatment of heart ailments although a much stronger, synthetic version, is more in use these days.

Other varieties of foxgloves often contain varying amounts of digitalin in their leaves but none, not even ‘Digitalis purpurea’ or its white relative should ever be considered for homemade herbal preparations as the result could be lethal.

Let’s take a look at the wonderful range of these bee-attractant plants suitable for growing in your garden.

It is fair enough to start in the south of the country, Karachi, and then work northwards to the hills and mountains with their correspondingly different soils and climates.

Foxgloves can really only be grown as annuals in Karachi, although, you may get lucky and achieve a bi-annual but not on a perennial status.

Seeds, which germinate quite rapidly, should be thinly sown just under the surface of a rich compost either in seed trays or plant pots.These must be placed in a shady spot, out of direct sunlight except for an hour or two just after dawn, or an hour or two before sunset.

When seedlings reach the four leaf stage, they should be very gently transplanted into their flowering position, this should have exactly the same light and shade conditions as the seed trays/pots. By the way, neither the seed trays nor the plants themselves, should ever be allowed to dry out completely or that will be the end of that. They are beautiful if grown under the shade of evergreen shrubs and trees, but remember to make allowances for the height of the flowering plants.

Seed should be sown from late August through to the end of October at the very latest, to give you flowers during the following late winter and early spring.

The best varieties to try in Karachi, Hyderabad and Lahore are: Digitalis ambigua, dwarf ‘Carillon’, a yellow flowered variety reaching only 12 inches in height.

Digitalis purpurea, ’Foxy’, an all American Award winner in a wide range of colours and growing to a height of around 3 ft.

Planting times for Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Peshawar are, generally speaking, mid-August to the end of September, and for these areas you stand a chance of growing not only annuals but bi-annuals too.

I recommend the following:

Digitalis micrantha, endemic to southern Italy, small, pale yellow flowers up to 4 ft tall.

Digitalis obscura, from Spain, with red veined yellow flowers up to 4 ft tall.

Digitalis thapsi, from Spain and Portugal, pink, purple, and cream flowers with red spots, from 2 - 4 ft in height.

Digitalis ‘excelsior’ hybrids, packed spikes of flowers in a terrific range of colours including cream, pink, primrose, and dark purple, all with attractive throat markings, and shooting up to 6 ft tall, sometimes more.

In hill stations and areas which experience reasonably cold winters and relatively cool summers, this excludes Gilgit and similar locations as summer temperatures are often higher than in Karachi, then almost anything goes and the perennial varieties of foxgloves are a must for the devoted gardener.

Top of my list here are:

Digitalis ambigua ‘Grandiflora’, from the European Alps and Pyrenees, large yellow flowers with maroon veins and up to 3 ft tall.

Digitalis ferruginea, ‘Rusty Foxglove’ with rusty, reddish brown flowers up to 5 ft tall.

Digitalis ferruginea ‘Gigantica’, yellow-brown flowers reaching well over 5 ft. A real eye-catcher if ever I saw one.

Digitalis nervosa, a rare plant from northern Turkey, orange brown hairy flowers, which are an amazing 6 ft to 8 ft tall.

Digitalis purpurea var. gloxiniodes, ‘The Shirley’, long spikes of Gloxinia like flowers in a veritable rainbow of colours including salmon, pinks, plums, creams, and yellows, all with lots of contrasting spots and veins and reaching 5 ft and more in height.

One must not forget our very own indigenous variety of foxglove here, ‘Digitalis lanata’, the ‘Wooly foxglove’, so named for its furry leaves. It is found in Azad Kashmir, Hazara, and I believe, further north also. It has pale, primrose hued flowers on one side of the stem, and grows to not more than 3 ft in height though both height and flower size are quite variable depending on soil conditions.

One does see, occasionally, both the purple and white types of Digitalis purpurea in ‘resorts’ developed by the British and other Europeans during the late 1800s and early 1900s, and on the whole, they have naturalized quite well without disturbing the habitat of the indigenous variety.

Whether you are growing foxgloves as annuals, bi-annuals, or perennials, it is a good idea to save your own seed for replanting and increasing your existing stock. If you end up with too many seeds of one particular variety perhaps you can exchange them with someone else, either for a different variety of foxglove, or for a different variety of plant altogether.

Seeds are very easy to collect, simply wait until the flower heads have dried up and you will see the seed pods forming.These will start out green and slowly turn dark brown at which time, as long as the weather is dry, the seeds should be dry too.

Harvest the full seed pods, lay them on a newspaper or in a shallow basket and sun them for a few days to ensure that all excess moisture evaporates.You can then either remove the many tiny seeds from the pods, or leave them inside their protective covers, store in an airtight container, in a cool place, the centre shelf of your fridge in a ‘hot spot’, and wait until next planting season comes around.

I do hope that you give foxgloves a try, whichever part of the country you reside in, if successful, I’m sure you will get lots and lots of pleasure, to say nothing of stunned admiration from friends, when these dancing bells come into bloom.

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