BBB: Foxglove

I don’t think foxglove is an endangered garden plant, but I do sense some resistance to growing the usual, biennial, form from seed. Judging from the popularity of the 1-year-to-maturity “Foxy” foxglove, waiting two years for a flower is too long. I can understand, especially when the seeds are so hard to germinate!

I’ve had little success with foxglove seed (Digitalis x mertonensis). From my Winter 2005/6 sowing set, I had a yield of three plants. I was terribly disappointed because I love foxglove. They bring back memories of sunny hillsides in the woods, thick with rosy, flowering spikes. That they are terribly poisonous (but the poison is a medicine in small doses) only increases their allure. I like to pretend that if the apocalypse came, I could be a folk healer. (Alternatively, if I got sucked back in time like Claire of the Outlander novels, I could do the same.) Finally, who wouldn’t want to grow a flower that legend says the fairies sleep within?

I’m not sure why the seeds were so hard to germinate, but the plants have been tough. I levered the three survivors into shady nooks around the deck and they all survived the winter. The first has bloomed and the other two have pregnant bulges in the middle of their rosettes. Despite my trouble, I am try, try, trying again. I sprinkled an entire packet of seed directly over the earth along the NW side of the deck. No babies yet, but maybe next spring…

Summary
Germination: difficult!
Culture: easy
Form : ugly leaves, but a nice rosette form. Flowers are on a spike.
Scent : none
Color : shades of pink, purple, white

BTW – that’s a bee butt in one of the flowers.

Sweet Patch

Among the many treasures Patrick gave me when I first started gardening was a large tuft of sweet woodruff. As I couldn’t recall the growing requirements for everything he gave me (there must have been starts of 20 different plants), I planted it in full sun. Ouch. After realizing my mistake, I transplanted the bedraggled remains to Cleo’s Garden, beneath the Norway Spruce.

Almost two years later, my sweet woodruff patch is full, lush, and so vigorous that I had to prune it back into it’s semicircular shape (echoing the shape of the bench). I happily spread the prunings to other shady areas in the front yard. I love it’s low, creeping habit, whorled stems, and fresh green color.

I’ve read that some gardeners dislike this plant. They find it aggressive. So far, I’ve found it to be very well mannered, but I have a lot of new, shady ground to cover. If one ends up with too much sweet woodruff, it makes a nice potpourri. When dried, the plants release a sweet scent reminiscent of vanilla and hay. Or, it can be steeped in white wine to make May Wine. I did this with the pieces that didn’t survive the pruning. I advise allowing the leaves to steep at least a day in a pitcher of white wine to fully release the flavor. Poured over ice, it makes a refreshing evening drink in the garden, like drinking liquid sunshine.

I’m hoping Patrick can make my open garden, so that I can show him how much I appreciate his gift of sweet woodruff.

My Favorite Spot, May 18th

Wow. I can’t believe it’s already Friday and time for “my favorite spot” again! This week, I’ve chosen another shady nook, the NE side of the deck. (For the uninitiated, my house faces SE, so I have to resort to odd directional facings to describe my garden beds.)

Like most of my garden, this area was grass (please click on the link for a SHOCKING “before” photo) when we moved in. It was one of the first places I identified as future garden space, if for no other reason than to conceal the deck’s “legs.” Initially, I created beds that simply wrapped around the deck’s three sides, at a depth of only about 18 inches. After attending a few garden tours this summer, I added curves to the candycane bed and this side of the deck. The result is pleasing to the eye and allows more plantings to hide the deck’s nasty underside.

Along with the shape renovations, this area has undergone a number of plant edits as well. Initially, it was planted with clematis, trumpet vine, ostrich ferns, spiderwort, and Francee hosta. I am ashamed to admit that I planted the last three in a repeating pattern, wrapping around the NE and NW sides of the deck. Now, this semicircle contains the same vines, but more ostrich ferns and the addition of two Golden Lights azaleas (still very small), daffodils, repeat-blooming hostas (from a neighbor), primula japonica, and, my favorite groundcover of all time, sweet woodruff.

The plants are doing well. First the daffodils emerge to conceal the deck’s underpinnings, then, the ostrich ferns, which have multiplied this year, emerge to provide an even thicker screen. As the azaleas are still very small, the primroses provide some spring height and color. The hostas, transplanted last summer, are thriving. Although I’m eager to see the azaleas grown to their promised 5 foot height and cover themselves in golden blooms, I’ve found pleasure in the “right now” of my favorite spot.

My Favorite Spot, May 11th

The SE side of our yard was a mess when we moved in. It’s shaded by a Norway spruce, 3 holly trees, and an enormous burning bush. The remaining spaces were filled with ivy, an Annabelle hydrangea, scraggly grass, and lawn violets. I smothered it all with leaves in the Fall of 2005. This week, my favorite spot is a portion of that border, beneath the female holly tree and just south of the shade bed.

This is sort of a rescue/wild area. One of our neighbors announced her intent to redo a portion of her backyard that had been the previous owner’s attempt at a wildflower garden. I transplanted at least a dozen columbine and several solomon’s seal. (I also successfully rescued a redbud, but that is planted elsewhere.) I added ‘Francee’ hosta that had been unhappy near the deck, ferns from along the SE side of the house, brunnera from the SW shrub border, and a Nikko Blue hydrangea that I got a great deal on at Funke's. Finally, I’ve added more wildflowers – toad lily from Pam, trillium from Tim, bleeding heart from Meijer (I’ve had really good results with the boxed, bareroot Dicentra), and Virginia bluebells from some mail order company. (And all these plants are just in the small circle around the holly. I’ve got even more interesting gems on the other side of the path!)

The columbine are currently blooming and I love the effect of the pale pink and deep purple blooms against the last of the bleeding heart and brunnera. It isn’t too far from the wallflower, so I get to enjoy sweet perfume as I pull tree seedlings from the leaf litter. Later in the season, I’ll enjoy orchid-like toad lilies, outrageously plump hydrangea flower heads, and the heady scent august lilies. I expect this to be my favorite spot more than once this season.

Big Jack

It’s been a rough week. By yesterday (Thursday) I was thoroughly confused about what day it was. At one point, I thought it was Friday, so I published “My Favorite Spot.” Whoops. So, today, in place of the usual Friday offering, I’d like to share more pictures of my loverly Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

Reportedly, Arisaema can grow to three feet tall. I’d like to see that! I am thoroughly impressed with my 20-inch specimen, which sports a nearly 3/4 inch diameter base. Regrettably, I couldn’t get Zoro to pose with it again, for scale.

Even if they hadn’t grown to be such monsters, I’d remain enamoured with my Jacks. They are so secretive, with the odd flowers tucked beneath the tripartite leaves. The subtle green stripes of the spathe glow when backlit by the sun. They encourage me to indulge in a bit of imagination play. I like to pretend I’m only 6 inches tall, and walking through a magical forest of Jack-in-the-Pulpit. In fact, if I were so small, I could crawl inside the spathe myself. I wonder if Jack would mind making room for me in there.

I’m meeting a swapper from my plant swap group this weekend, and he’s offering me more Jacks, along with bleeding heart, in return for a few of my seed-grown Heuchera. How could I say no?