Perennials: Foxglove, 1 by gregr18

gregr18 wrote:
Here's an example of how they can self-sow. This is on the border between zone 6 and zone 7, but I thought I'd show a little bit of their reproductive power! The summer heat and crowding will wipe most of them out, but there will probably be four to five winners in that little cluster. The seedlings don't mind being disturbed and transplanted at all, though.

Foxgloves are naturalized on my property. They are Digitalis purpurea and Digitalis purpurea 'Alba'. The seedlings range from purple to pure white, with every shade of pink you can imagine in between. The mixes between 'Alba' and the type plant tend to move towards purple, but enough whites cross-pollinate with other whites to keep the pure white strain going. It's nice to watch the different combinations play out.

I know that D. purpurea will readily hybridize with a few others in the genus. I have young plants of laevigata, lutea, ferruginea, and a blooming thapsii 'Spanish Peaks' this year, and I'm looking forward to seeing what will cross with what in the next few years.

The colors of the newer cultivars, like apricot and even some of the older cultivars of yellow foxglove, are probably pretty fragile. I've collected the seed from a yellow cultivar before, but the tendency to revert was strong, and I got mainly light purple offspring. That said, there's always a chance that something new and spectacular might come out of a cross between a wild plant and a fancy cultivar. These plants are a lot of fun.

-Greg