Candy Mountain Foxglove

'Candy Mountain' ushers in a whole new color for foxgloves, with plants that grow to a maximum of 4 ft. Please note that our potted 'Candy Mountain' Foxglove plants will bloom for you in their first season; their seeds, however, produce true biennials that grow foliage the first year and bloom the second season of growth. By letting seeds form, new foxgloves will self-sow and produce future generations.  These new plants can be moved in their first year when they are still small.As a Digitalis purpurea, 'Candy Mountain' is a descendent of Wild Foxglove.

The Foxglove Story The very important Wild Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea is a native of the UK, naturalized in the US, and famous for being used for Digitalis, the life-saving heart medicine. However, Wild Foxglove is a biennial which often makes it undependable in perennial plantings. But since the twenties, there have been beautiful perennial foxgloves too, a little shorter, but just as beautiful as the towering purpureas.

The great breakthrough came when a cross was accomplished in Merton, England in 1928 between the famous biennial wildflower and the perennial species, Digitalis grandiflora. The perennial foxglove has ever since been called Digitalis mertonensis, named after the town. However, Mertonensis gives us only one color and blooms every year. The Foxy Hybrids take their places in the foxglove line-up, bringing all the colors back with the biennial issue solved.