Digitalis grandiflora - Foxglove

The Digitalis grandiflora is a very graphic perennial offering numerous floral spikes with pale yellow bilabiate tubular flowers spotted with ochre towards the inside.  It flowers between June and August. Its evergreen leaves are oblong to lanceolate, dark green, glossy, and villous on the veins on the underside. If the faded spikes are cut, new ones will emerge.

Although the foxglove is a woodland plant, it thrives just as well in sunny to partially shaded beds, in humus-rich, moist to dry, well-draining soil.  It can tolerate limestone. Their rigid and vertical appearance contrast with and complement the roundness of other plants.

Like all foxgloves, it is highly toxic if ingested. It contains an alkaloid, digitalin, still used today for the treatment of heart diseases.

Large-flowered foxgloves can behave as biennials, but their propensity to self-seed makes them perennial in the garden. You can recreate a woodland atmosphere by associating them with grasses, ferns, and Astrantias. In the background of beds, their shallow rooting allows them to be placed behind roses or perennials such as Italian Bugloss, Silver Candles, or Asters.