Digitalis (genus, foxgloves)

Japanese name: ジギタリス（総称）
Scientific name: Digitalis

[Overview]
An annual to perennial, rarely a shrub.
Because it has weak heat tolerance, in gardening it is mostly treated as a biennial sown in autumn.
The whole plant is hairy.
The leaves include basal leaves and leaves arranged alternately on the stem.
A long raceme at the stem tip bears many flowers turned to one side, and they open from the bottom of the spike.
The flowers are bell-shaped, 4-lobed at the tip and somewhat two-lipped, and hang downward.
Flower colors include reddish purple, pink, white and brown, and some are multicolored.
There are 4 stamens, which are didynamous.
The calyx is 5-lobed.
The fruit is a capsule.

[Uses]
Several species are extremely poisonous, but the plant is also well known as a medicinal herb.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed, by division, or by stem cuttings.
A plant of a certain size will not flower unless it is exposed to winter cold, so spring-sown plants flower the following year, and autumn-sown plants flower the year after that.
The optimum germination temperature is 20–25°C, and germination takes about 10 days; the seeds need light to germinate, so sow them in seed-starting soil without covering them with soil, and water from the bottom so that the soil does not dry out.
It prefers a sunny, well-drained, well-aerated, fertile soil.
Transplanting is easy.
Water thoroughly when the soil surface dries.
Apply slow-release fertilizer as a base fertilizer, and give additional fertilizer in spring.
When the flowers have opened up to the upper part of the spike, cut the flower stalk at the base, and side shoots will grow so that you can enjoy a second flowering.
If you are not collecting seed, cutting the flower stalk keeps the plant from becoming exhausted.
Aphids can occur.

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