Digitalis purpurea Apple Blossom - Foxglove

Digitalis purpurea Apple Blossom® is a brand new hybrid foxglove, one of a kind. Awarded at the HTA New Plant Awards in England, in the herbaceous perennial category, it is also the overall winner of this prestigious show. It stands out with its frilly flowers, reminiscent of orchids, its spectacular mix of colours, and its exceptional floriferousness. While the lower flowers open in a soft pink-white, the top of the stem blooms with cream-yellow flowers. Some petals are speckled with purple, like a tricyrtis. It conforms to its genus in terms of cultivation, but also distinguishes itself with its disease resistance. A plant for woodland edges or understory, it prefers partial shade and humus-bearing soils, but also adapts to well-drained ordinary soil.

The Apple Blossom Foxglove is a hybrid cultivar developed in the Netherlands by Maarten van der Sar. Foxgloves belong to the scrophulariaceae family. The horticultural variety Apple Blossom is a very perennial plant, developing a rosette of 30 cm in diameter, with hairy, dark green, crinkled and toothed leaves from spring, whose underside is networked and sometimes covered with slightly woolly, very light hairs. From May to August, green, hollow but sturdy stems emerge from the rosette to bear a thin, dense floral spike 60 cm high, composed of many small tubular flowers with split corollas giving them their frilly appearance. It is a spectacular variety due to the number of its constantly renewing floral spikes.

The Apple Blossom foxglove is an ideal perennial for woodland edges, understory, or cottage gardens. It thrives in light sun, partial shade, or even shade, in moist and light soil. It pairs perfectly with old roses or perennials with single flowers like columbines, Cornflowers, masterworts or meadow rues. With its low habit, this variety can also be grown in a large pot near the house, offering a constantly renewed blooming. As elegant as bear's breeches, without the inconvenience of self-seeding, it pairs beautifully with perennial geraniums, heucheras, and ferns in light understory. To echo its unique flowers, pair it with a toad lily. It also makes lovely cut flowers for the home.