Digitalis purpurea 'Digluc' LUCAS common foxglove
size/type
mid-sized perennial,mid-sized perennial
usual height
0,5-0,7m
usual width
0,3-0,4m
leaves
deciduous broadleaf
colour of leaves
flowers
showy
colour of flowers
blooming time
June-September
location
full to partial sun
USDA zone (lowest)
4 (down to -34°C)
winter protection
for zone 5+6
for zone 7
categorized
Common foxglove is a European native and is found marginally in our country, too. Its flowers are so attractive that breeders keep hybridizing them and every now and then they introduce a new, improved variety. These improvements usually involve not just pretty flowers but mainly their life span – in the wild common foxglove is a biennial which needs one whole year for plant maturation to produce flower stems the year after. No one is so patient today. So new varieties are hybrids eliminating waiting so they either flower in their first year or they behave like clumping perennials without a need for self-seeding.
Description of the plant:
Lucas is a handsome guy among foxglove varieties. It is highly valued not only for beautiful flowers but also extended blooming time as its secondary stems keep on producing flowers until September. Flowers are widely funnel-shaped, rich purple pink outside and almost white inside with showy maroon spots margined white. They are loosely clustered along its stems. The main ones are about 60-70 cm tall and secondary stems reach some 30 cm. It is short-lived perennial or a biennial which needs to set seeds for another generation and bloom in its second year. Leaves are smaller and thinner than those on most other foxglove varieties, broadly lance-shaped, mid green, conspicuously veined. Foxglove is a medical plant but also quite toxic. Even though it does not make any fruit-like looking berries that would attract children it is not recommended for mass plantings near playgrounds, school yards, or kindergartens.
Foxglove will grow in almost any soil apart from too wet or too dry. In the wild it is found in humus-rich soils in light woods and its margins, which means that it will love partial shade in your garden, or full sun if kept moist. Excess fertilizing may result in production of enormous leaves but no flowers. Hardy to about -34°C (USDA zone 4).
Last update 04-12-2020.
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GLOSSARY
- STANDARD QUALITY - Plants of this group are 1st class quality with number of branches and overall density adequate to their size and age, considering they were container grown.
- DE LUXE QUALITY - This label guarantees a luxurious quality of manually selected plants that, compared to their height and age, are exceptionally dense and beautiful.
- EXTRA - These plants are usually mature and bigger specimens with exceptional overall appearance.
- STANDARD (as described in the plant form) means a tree with a trunk of 190-210 cm and a crown at the top, unless specified differently. The commercial size for trees is their girth measured in the height of 1m from ground.
- HOBBY - These plants are of the same quality as our standard-quality plants but younger and therefore cheaper.
- SHRUB - a woody plant with branches growing bushy from the ground level.
- HALF-STANDARD or MINI-STANDARD - a small tree with shorter trunk, its size is usually specified.
- FEATHERED - These are trees with branches growing already from the base of the trunk and up along the stem.
- GRASSES and PERENNIALS - Sizes given usually read the diameter of the pot or the clump, as specified.
