Foxglove 'Fairy Bells'

Digitalis purpurea

Mrs. M. Grieve in the Modern Herbal (1931) recounts the folklore of the foxglove, "The Foxglove derives its common name from the shape of the flowers resembling the finger of a glove. It was originally Folksglove - the glove of the 'good folk' or fairies, whose favourite haunts were supposed to be in the deep hollows and woody dells, where the Foxglove delights to grow. There is a northern legend that bad fairies gave these blossoms to the fox that he might put them on his toes to soften his tread when he prowled among the roosts. The mottlings of the blossoms of the Foxglove and the Cowslip, like the spots on butterfly wings and on the tails of peacocks and pheasants, were said to mark where the elves had placed their fingers." We salute the long history of foxgloves in gardens by renaming this intricately spotted variety 'Fairy Bells'. Poisonous