Foxglove

Bloom time: Late spring to mid-summer.

Garden lore has it that foxgloves are named for their flowers, which can easily slip onto your finger like the tip of a glove. This genus of biennials originated in Europe, northern Africa, and parts of Asia. In its first year, young plants grow tight rosettes of long oblong leaves. Spikes of purple, pink, white, and yellow blooms shoot up the following spring and early summer. Keep the plants well watered during dry weather - the bigger and healthier they are the first year, the more stunning the display will be when they bloom the following year. Foxgloves will naturalize in Coastal gardens.

Foxglove species are poisonous. The whole plant is toxic to humans, although the smaller upper leaves are particularly potent. The same chemical properties that make these ornamentals poisonous are beneficial in manufacturing medicines called cardiac glycosides that are used to treat heart conditions. These pharmaceauticals are named Digitalin. Foxgloves belong to the plantain family, Plantaginaceae.