Digitalis purpurea 'CAMELOT ROSE' common foxglove

Camelot is a beautiful series of common foxglove offering attractive flowers on strong plants. Camelot Rose produces large, rosy pink to light purple red flowers on about 80 cm tall, sturdy stems. They are decorated with rich burgundy red dots with white margins. Blooming begins in June and continues until late July from numerous side shoots. Apply liquid fertilizer every 2 weeks to enhance flowering.

Leaves are large, broadly lance-shaped, mid green, toothed at margins, and hairy. Foxglove is a medical plant but also quite toxic. Despite the fact that it doesn’t make any fruit-like looking berries that would attract children it is not recommended for mass plantings near playgrounds, school yards, or kindergartens.

Common foxglove is a European native that is found marginally in our country, too. It is a short live perennial or a biennial that needs to self seed to produce new plant in the following year. It is best to leave the main stem flower till the very top and only when there are no more buds cut it in half, leaving some seeds at its bottom ripen and self seed in autumn.

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 cause profusion of leaves but no flowers. Hardy to about -34°C (USDA zone 4).

Last update 27-05-2014.