November 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Matt T]

I think in D.ferruginea the lip of the flower should be very hairy. Neither of Jamus' pics show this, so I'd say they both look like D.lanata.

[Maggi Young]

That's funny, Matt! I was going to say that I thought the foliage should be furry in lanata  (- in Jamus' pix the foliage looks small and "hard" with only some hairs on the edges) and that  lanata should have more coloured veining on the lip and the flower should be more furry, as well as the foliage - so I thought both were ferugineum!

Ooh errrrr...... 

[Matt T]

There are hairs in Jamus' pics, one the flowers and leaves, just very small so you have to get really close to the screen. It's the underside of the leaves that are 'wooly' so your only seeing a few on the edges of the leaves. The white lip is also quite characteristic of D.lanata.

[Jupiter]

You were all typing feverishly away while I was writing a response, and googling.

I know! Labelling mixup? I could have sworn I had it right... I did hesitate Maggi but these are similar looking species. Maybe someone here has some experience and can clarify things for me? Anyone? 

Update: I've done some googling and I'm sure both plants are D. lanata, which is slightly troubling. Either I mixed up my labels or I was sent the wrong seed... I'll have a closer look at other 'ferruginea' plants in the garden when the sun comes up. Maybe the leaves will have distinguishing features which can save me from a long wait for flowers on all of them.

[Matt T]

Granted it's not as wooly as other plants we'd regard as such, i.e. Stachys byzantina.

[Maggi Young]

I think both may well be lanata - on the grounds we're not seeing the whole plant.
Some lovely furry lanata pix here : http://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/foxglove.html 

Now for me to work out why I've been getting muddled!

[Jupiter]

Yes both must be lanata. That's a good page Maggi with good close ups of leaves, buds and stems. Just like my plants.

[Tim Ingram]

D. ferruginea from my memory has smaller flowers without such a prominent and distinctive lip (i.e: similar colour to the rest of the flower) and very tall slender spikes. D. laevigata is closer to lanata but with yellower flowers but my favourite has to be D. parviflora with those small brownish flowers and generally a more perennial habit. They are rather exquisite seen close-up - no wonder they are so attractive to bees!

[Maggi Young]

I'm with you , Tim  - they are all charming.

 Hope you had a suitably cake-filled birthday?! 

[Jon Evans]

Some pictures of Digitalis ferruginea from the AGS garden in 2008 - a magnificent plant.

[Maggi Young]

Super photos  of the fuzziness of the flowers, Jon. The  spike is  a real skyscraper, isn't it ? 

[Jupiter]

Thanks for the pictures Jon, I'm really looking forward to my ferruginea flowering after seeing those, although I might have to wait another year yet...

I've grown them all from seed, D. parviflora and D. laevigata are perennial in the garden now and self seed and spread around freely. The "ferruginea" which I grew previously was seed given to me by an acquaintance online and I'm now doubting the identity of those. I will have to dig out the photos when I get a moment and remind myself. New ferruginea 'gigantea' seed sown in the winter is now planted out in the garden but none have flower spikes yet. I may buy some seed of stewartii this autumn and add another species to the garden. I really enjoy them.

[Robert]

It also gets interesting when they hybridize with each other and seed around the garden. That is what happen here in our California garden. I'm not sure who hybridizes with who, but they are out about 15 generations and completely mixed up now. Some are quite nice but with three years of drought now many have died out. 

[fermi de Sousa]

We had an inch of rain last week and today Habranthus robustus (ex 'Russell Manning')was in full flower,
cheers
fermi

[Tim Ingram]

Sumptuous flower Fermi - if only this was hardy with us. We've had the rain at both ends of the year!