Digitalis

 Foxglove Digitalis purpurea

Wild Wicklow Foxgloves

Compliments of Mother Nature :
A corner of my garden has been taken over by tall, elegant, beautifully scented foxgloves. They are shades of purple and pink and some are pure white. Although beautiful to look at foxglove is well known to be poisonous.
Despite that, this plant has been found of enormous use in medicine.  It has been used in the treatment of congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia.
Known by a variety of names such as 'Fairy thimbles', in counties Fermanagh and Cavan, you are not supposed to bring Foxgloves into the house as they are deemed to be unlucky.

The name foxglove is from the old English name "foxes glofa." It comes from an old myth that foxes must have used the flowers to magically sheath their paws as they stealthily made their nocturnal raids into the poultry yards of rural folk. The association is natural for the foxgloves grew on the wooded hillside slopes that foxes chose for their dens. This will lead to a further post relating to some other garden residents. Foxgloves are a biennial plant (it blooms the second year, then dies),  nevertheless it has the same performance as an enduring perennial because it reseeds so readily that every year the dramatic flower spikes will hopefully appear in the garden.