Garden Visitors for 12-13-14 ♥ ♥ ♥

Anna's Hummingbird, female.
Winter resident on Shaw Island,
12-13-14
Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Anna's Hummingbird, male.
Winter resident on Shaw Island,
12-13-14.
Courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

For two successive years the "winged winter jewel" known as the Anna's Hummingbird has been observed in at least two Shaw Island winter gardens. Both genders calmly enjoying Mahonia and Viburnum bodnantense flowers with backup of a feeder with sugar solution.

      For many years this hummingbird has been staying through the winter on San Juan, Orcas and Lopez Islands. Perhaps they are finally attracted to Shaw Island shores by tropical scent in the air from fragrant garden plants displaying luscious winter blooms.        

      Ciscoe Morris writes that this tiny bird needs to eat half its weight every day to survive, and encourages us to help them out with plant specimens they enjoy. Listed below are some of Ciscoe's recommendations that we can easily grow and plants that are commonly found at local nurseries.

   

Tall, winter blooming Mahonia x "Charity"
Shaw Island Community Building garden.
Planted along south fence line in the 1990s
by the volunteer garden crew.
Photo December 2014.

For expert advice on growing this Mahonia bred in N. Ireland, see this link

Hardy Fuchsia (F. magellanica); late fall bloomer in Mary Lou's garden.
witch hazel
Lonicera fragrantissima (winter honeysuckle)
Viburnum bodnantense
Sarcococca (sweet box)

      
If our gardens can provide a diversity of nectar plants, shelter, appropriate water sources, and if we can eliminate or greatly reduce the use of insecticides and herbicides, we will be able to experience hosting the jewel box hummingbirds all the year through. May they stay on Shaw for the Christmas Bird Count.

🐝 🐝 🐝 MONEY PLANT (Lunaria annua)

LUNARIA ANNUA dried seed pods
 Mideke porcelain pot.
Shaw Island 2014.

Common names: Money Plant, Honesty, Silver Dollars.

Source: This plant has been growing on Shaw Island with two long-time islanders, Gwen Yansen and Mary Lou Clark. Since the number of gardening years they have enjoyed on Shaw added together tops 100, let us list Lunaria annua as a Shaw Island Heritage Plant. The plant could have been introduced to the island by previous owners of their early established gardens, the Biendl, and the Fowler families.

"Money Plant"
First-year planting of Lunaria
in the Gatehouse woodland garden.
And soon come the attractive seed capsules
as seen posted on top. 

Native: The Balkans and SW Asia;  naturalized through the temperate climate of the world.

Life cycle: Herbaceous Biennial. 

Nomenclature: Lunaria means “moon-shaped,” referring to the seedpods. In SE Asia it is called “money plant," in the US it is commonly known as “silver dollars.” In French, it is known as Monnaie du pape (“the Pope’s money”) In Denmark, it is known as judaspenge, an illusion to the story of Judas Iscariot and the 30 pieces of silver he was paid for betraying Christ.

Tolerates: Shaw Island deer have let me grow this plant at the Gatehouse garden all the way until 2019 when they have been munching on the foliage but leaving me the seed pods. That works. 

Height: 2 to 3 ft

Bloom: Mid-spring-summer, fragrant, magenta-purple. A favorite for honey bees.

Growing Region: USDA Zone–– down to 4a.

The degree of Difficulty: EASY

Propagation: from seed. Direct sowing with a depth of 1/4". Spacing 4-6". Then at maturity thin 12-18".

Days to Sprout: 14-28.

Uses: Vital nectar plants for bees, butterflies, and birds. Cottage garden, flower arranging, flower borders, butterfly, and wildlife gardens. Esteemed gardener/author Christopher Lloyd, in his book Cottage Garden, Prentice-Hall (1990), suggests Lunaria as a specimen we should grow. 

Bloom time: Spring to Summer flowers. If the flowers are not picked for bouquets there is autumn interest with flat, translucent, round and papery seed cases resembling little moons. These can be brought inside for use in dry arrangements or they can be left in the garden where they will re-seed.

 Lunaria at Priona Garden
by Scott Weber.
A Piet Oudolf-inspired garden tour
to Holland and Germany,
 September 2015.

Notes: Some sources say to direct sow in fall and some say to wait until spring. In the PNW climate, I’m sure we can take our pick. Needs no pampering. It prefers partial shade but will tolerate full sun. Seems happiest growing among other plants. Lunaria develops thick storage roots, and deep tap roots, so if kept in small pots for any length of time this prevents roots from developing and will cause distress. Requires moist soil.

      Once established it will continue to produce a display each year.
      Artist Claude Monet grew this flower at his famous Clos Normand Garden, at Giverny.

Drying:

"We call this herb in English
Penny floure or Money floure––
and among the women it is
called Honestie."
Gerard.

Before the days of sophisticated dried flowers, "Honesty" was popular at Christmas and New Year's; after it had been arranged it would often stay in the vase for months.

      Now there is keener interest in the winter garden and the seed pods of the Silver Dollars can add interest to a bleak winter landscape.

      The key to getting good “silver pennies” is to make sure that the seed pods are perfectly dry. Cut the stems bearing seed pods and hang in bunches upside down in an airy room to dry. Once dry, gently remove the outer seed casing before using them for arrangements.

      In October, I brought some seed pods inside to dry. It was a delight to see them transform from rag-tag battleship gray to clean, translucent, silvery-white.

Favorite reference for research on Lunaria annua;

“Honesty, or money plant, is one of those plants that is always appreciated but rarely used to its full potential. True, it is valued as a dried flower––for its silvery seed heads that look like coins––and for the wild garden, especially in its delightful but underused white form.

      In naturalistic or woodland situations some seedlings are best left where they sow themselves. In any shady situation planted with less delicate woodlanders, they can be allowed to do their own thing.

      The purple honesty looks excellent with white or yellow tulips.

       Lunaria will self-sow perfectly in perennial plantings. The gardener can take a hand in the look of the planting by removing self-sown seedlings from inappropriate positions and moving them to more advantageous ones.”

      The above quote from Discovering Annuals. Rice, Graham. Prentice-Hall. 1990. 
     

Money Plant
(Lunaria annua)
Fat, fresh seeds for sale
beneath the Viking Dragon
at the Gatehouse, Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

🌿 MARY LOU's Nasturtiums 🌿

MARY LOU AND MONET

Eye to eye in November,
with the luxury of greenhouse
quarters on Shaw Island.
Photo taken 2014.
No enhanced image, the Nasturtiums
come fully packed with color.

No one needs an introduction to the well-known botanical specimen, Tropaeolum majus. Nasturtiums are one of the most foolproof and versatile of all summer annuals. This variety gets star status for being a long-time friend of gardener Mary Lou, of Shaw. If you read further you will see why the famed artist, gardener Claude Monet, gets top billing along with our island neighbor.

Common Name: Mary Lou's Trailing Nasturtiums (Spitfire)
Life cycle: Hardy Annual
Growing region: Zone 1-10.
Degree of Difficulty: EASY
Bloom time: Mid-summer to autumn frost.
Flower description: The newly collected seeds are from Mary Lou's very happy, trailing Nasturtium. There are a few of a medium yellow shade, perhaps with odds of 10%. One can choose to rogue out if one of the colors doesn't suit your design. The solid orange suits me to the ground, so it is hereby "Mary Lou's," of course.

Origin: Originally from South American Andes from Bolivia north to Columbia. It was first cultivated in Peru and introduced to Europe in the 16th C by the Spanish conquistadors. There are dwarf varieties (Nanum) and this offered seed, which is the trailing (Majus) form.

Germination: 7-21 days. Distinctive seedlings can be told from nearby weed seedlings quite easily.
Cultivation: Sow direct where they are to grow instead of transplanting.
They prefer well-drained soil in full sun of the Northwest but are difficult to keep flowering in the hot sun of the south. They will tolerate some drought but bloom best when watered in their growing season. Several sources say Nasturtiums do better with soil of moderate to low fertility.

Notes:

Nasturtium "Spitfire" has been listed in seed catalogues since 1887.

Studies say this annual is among the best "flower trap" for attracting predatory insects.
Attractive to Hummingbirds.

Uses: Cottage and informal gardens; hanging baskets, tubs, and containers. Ideal for children.
Good for filling bare spots or along the edges of your flower and vegetable beds.
Flowers, leaves, and seeds are all edible for peppery additions to salads.


My favorite reference for this Tropaeolum study;
Russell, Vivian. Monet's Garden, Through the Seasons at Giverny. 
New York. Stewart, Tabori & Chang. 1995. 

"The piece de resistance of Claude Monet's Giverny––unique to Giverny––is the carpet of trailing nasturtiums leading the way along the Grande Allée toward the front door. This effect was already in place in 1892, according to a photograph from that date, and was probably used even earlier. How was it conceived? One can only guess. On fine, warm days the family lunched on the wooden green veranda that ran the length of the house, under a canopy of Virginia creeper, roses, wisteria, and Aristolochia. Monet always sat with his back to the house, facing the garden and gazing down the Grande Allée. He would have noticed in other situations the creeping, trailing habit of climbing nasturtiums and their capacity for covering the ground far beyond where their roots are anchored, and being a canny and resourceful character, he may have thought that this would solve the problem of the Grande Allée. The sturdy, reliable nasturtiums were planted on either side and allowed to creep toward one another and toward the light in the middle of the path. By September, only a narrow sinuous path was visible between the sea of undulating leaves, brilliantly translucent in the sun and making waves of frothy acid-green on which floated orange flowers. The whole concept was not that far removed from the water lilies that would later float on his pond. Even the disk-like leaves of the nasturtiums echo the shape of the water-lily pads that were to come.
      At Giverny today, great care is taken to make sure the nasturtiums perform on cue. The seeds are planted in spring directly in the soil along the Grande Allée after being soaked for 24 hours in warm water. The seeds, two planted every 2 inches, are supplied wholesale by weight and identified as nothing grander than 'medium-high,' 'high climbing,' and so on. Although extra sowings are made in the greenhouses simultaneously in case the seeds fail in the main garden, they have always proven dependable and so far, have carpeted the whole of the Grande Allée by mid-September every year.
      Nasturtiums figure prominently in Monet's late summer and fall garden, and as with all the favorites of his early years, he remained faithful to them, growing annual and perennial varieties over many years. He grew some––probably annuals rather than perennials––up the tuteurs in the island beds in front of his house and in his paintbox beds."

A quote below from a favorite American garden writer, the famous gardener/author, Celia Thaxter (1835-1894) who chose to garden on Appledore Island, ME., operate one of the first summer resorts in the country and surround herself with guest artists such as the great painter Childe Hassam (1859-1935.)

"In the case of Nasturtiums––these are among the most beautiful and decorative of all––everyone is twice as valuable if given the support it demands. Nasturtiums, which seem with endless good nature ready to adapt themselves to any conditions of existence, except, perhaps, being expected to live in a swamp, it is not so important that they should have something upon which to climb. A very good way is to put them near a rock one wishes to have covered, or to let them run down a bank upon which nothing else cares to grow. They will clothe such places with the wild and beautiful luxuriance of green leaves and glowing flowers."
Thaxter, Celia. An Island Garden; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1894. 
There is a special reprint published in 1977 by John M. Kingsbury, Director of Shoals Marine Laboratory who also took charge of the restoration of Thaxter's garden.
To tour her garden under the care of U of NH and Cornell, see this link

A fresh crop of Mary Lou's
trailing Nasturtium seeds (Spitfire,)
available at  Gatehouse Seeds,
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

PUMPKIN CROP 2014

Shaw Island grown pumpkins 2014.

🌿 Gwen's Sweet Pea 🌿

Lathyrus latifolius
Hand-thrown porcelain pot by Louis Mideke
Shaw Island, Summer 2014

      From a photograph documenting the day, we know that in the late 1960s, Gwen Yansen, with a maiden name of Jones, traveled to the small island of Jones, San Juan county, with Babs and Coonie Cameron. Their mission was to gather wild-collected flower seeds for the woodland garden being planted for the new Shaw Island Library and Historical Society. 
      We all know that Gwen loved flowers, but with a healthy love of books, she also contributed as a trustee on the first board of directors to help round up supportive charter members.
      The native, Lathyrus latifolius vine enjoyed a prominent place in the Yansen garden overlooking Wasp Pass. Gwen grew her perennial Sweet Pea specimen for at least twenty years, on its own 7-ft iron tuteur.
       Mary Lou, another great island gardener used to give her annual Sweet Peas an early start by sowing them in the autumn season, in a warm southerly location next to her house. She remembers that wild Sweet Peas used to grow along Shaw Island ditches before our roads were so well maintained by the County Road crew. 

Lathyrus latifolius
Blooms of summer '14.

     This naturalized, roadside wildflower was introduced from Southern Europe into English gardens before 1635, and came with immigrants to North America. Now throughout the west, the plant is an example of the adage that "we can't have it all." The perennial vine, with healthy foliage all through the record hot, dry summer of 2021, is long-lived, salt-spray, and wind tolerant, it has a long bloom season with fine flowers for cutting, a gorgeous magenta rose color,  clump, and displays resistance to drought. It won the prestigious Royal Horticulture Society "Award of Garden Merit," but alas, it lacks fragrance.
     
      According to seed specialist, Renee Shepherd, this species can be trained as an attractive and reliable perennial hedge plant, much more drought tolerant than the annual sweet peas. Here is a link to her site.

      Cultivation:

Pre-soak seeds and sow in containers for placement in a cold frame in Sept/Oct or store seeds in the refrigerator for sowing in early spring. 
Prone to diseases if seedlings are overwatered.
Enjoys the sun.
Some good culture notes HERE.

*Favored reference for this Lathyrus study; 
Clark, Lewis J. Wild Flowers of the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to Northern California; Sidney, B.C., Gray Publishing Ltd. 1976.

Fresh sweet pea packets are  
on the rack at the Gatehouse,
 Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island.

Boatshop SITKA SPRUCE

Picea sitchensis, 
native to Shaw Island, WA.

Description:
Largest of the world’s spruce family seldom found far from moist, maritime air. Lifespan of over 700 years. Grows in a narrow strip along the north Pacific coast, including Shaw Island, WA.

Seed starting:
Soak in water, then let stand for 24 hrs. No stratification is needed. Sow 1/8" deep, tamp the soil, mulch the seed bed. Can be sensitive to excess moisture.

Notes: 
Likes deep, moist, well-aerated soils—poor on swampy soil. Tolerant of ocean spray.
Great notes on the history of this Spruce can be found here

Freshly harvested seeds will sometimes be for sale again at the Gatehouse, on Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

🐝 🐝 🐝 "Evening Primrose" (Oenothera biennis)

Angel's "Evening Primrose"
Oenothera biennis
Shaw Island, 
photo summer 2014.

Common name: "Evening Primrose," "King's Cure-All"

Life cycle: Hardy biennial.

Growing region: USDA Zone 4 to 9

Height: 3-6-ft.

Bloom time: Late Spring-Summer

Flower description: Clear yellow; showy; fragrant; short-lived; June-August.

Habitat: full sun; well-drained soils; 1 and 2-yr old plants grow together in localized clumps––sea-level to 2,000-ft.
Notes: 
According to the Xerces Society, this plant has special value for native bees.

A plant for the moonlit garden, the flowers unclasp their hooked cover at twilight and open their flowers to the moon, welcoming the night with their sweet fragrance and emissions of phosphorescent light. As the season progresses, the flowers stay open all days as well.

Excellent in any garden.

Great description here:

Seed packets for sale at the
Gatehouse, Reefnet Bay Road, 
Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 Golden Feverfew 🌿 (TANACETUM parthenium 'Aureum' )

Golden Feverfew
Growing on Shaw Island 2016.

TANACETUM parthenium ‘Aureum’

Common name: Golden Feverfew
Type: Hardy perennial herb
Growing region: USDA Zone: 5 to 7
Height: .75 to 1-ft.
Bloom time: June to October
Sun: full sun.
Water: medium
Maintenance: medium
Suggested use: annual, naturalize.
Flower: showy.
Tolerates: drought.
Foliage: Chartreuse, aromatic.

Culture:
Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun. Prefers moist, humusy soils with good drainage. Sometimes considered to be a biennial, but will usually remain in the garden through self-seeding that I’ve never considered invasive. Autumn or spring planting. 

Shear the spent blossoms immediately after blooming if you choose to avoid self-seeding.

Notes:
Grown in medicinal gardens for centuries. Contains pyrethrin, a natural insect repellent. 

Suited to container growing, especially around outdoor seating areas, naturalized areas or cottage gardens where it can freely self-seed. 

The Golden Feverfew is very easy to weed out if you choose. 

May be used in rock gardens, edging, or bedding plant. 

An excellent companion to roses.

 

Golden Feverfew 
(Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum'
Seeds available at the 
Shaw Island Gatehouse 
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

🌿 CAMAS 🌿 (CAMASSIA quamash)

Camas
(Camassia quamash) 
This photo was taken on Yellow Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
A nature preserve.

Common name: Camas

Life cycle: Hardy Bulb.

Growing region: Zones 4 to 9.

Height: 12-24 inches.

Flowers: Late spring.

Bloom Description: blue-violet (rarely white.) Showy; April-June. 

Habitat: moist soils, at least in early spring, prairies; meadows; grassy flats. Occurs on both sides of the Cascades. 

Tolerates: Summer drought.

Notes: 
Camassia species deserve wider use in perennial gardens or for naturalizing in woodland settings. They are used more extensively in Europe than in the USA, where they are native.  These long-lived bulbs are easy to establish.
The bulbs were an important food for Native Americans, and territorial battles were fought over quamash fields. The Lewis and Clark expedition also depended on boiled bulbs for food during their journey west. 
There are six species of Camassia native to N. America. There are two species native to the San Juans. 

June 1806 Meriwether Lewis came down into the Nisqually prairie and said these famous words:

"The quamash is now in blume and from the colour of its bloom at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so completely in this deception that on first sight I could have sworn that it was water!"

One of my favourite reference books for researching this specimen, partly because the author took space to include the well-known Lewis quote, in her fine book:

A Christmas 2014 gift book
from dear friends.
Only available from within
Northwest Indian communities
Published by The Northwest Indian College
Vanessa Cooper-360-392-4343.

the North American Native Plant Society has good notes here.

Camassia quamash
seed packet
Available at the Shaw Island
Gatehouse seed shed
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 ROSE CAMPION (Lychnis coronaria) 🌿 (Updated)

Rose Campion
(Lychnis coronaria)
Growing at the Gatehouse garden
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

Lychnis coronaria 

Herbaceous biennial.

Common names: Rose Campion, Mullein Pink, and in the U.K., "Bridget-in-her-bravery."  It is still widely referenced under the synonym Silene coronaria.

Native Region: Southern Europe
USDA Hardiness: Zone 3-10
Preferred Climate: Temperate

Bloom color: Rosy red.

Height: 28"-30" 

Environment: full sun to part shade.
Description: 
Rose Campion, well-loved for its long bloom season, comes reliably true from seed and makes an attractive accent in the garden. It seems rather elegant at times. This erect, woolly, silver-gray plant produces a succession of long-stalked, flowers from late spring through the summer and into autumn if deadheaded. This biennial reseeds itself reliably but doesn't become thuggish and may survive as a short-lived perennial. Height 24-36 inches; spread 18 inches.

Tolerates: deer, drought, dry soil, rocky soil.

Attracts: Butterflies, especially the Swallowtails, in my experience.

Pale Tiger Swallowtail

This day 30 June 2019
Gatehouse Garden, Shaw Island, WA.
Rose Campion.

Log House Plants, Cottage Grove, OR.,
 Bed & Breakfast Project tells of
this butterfly having only one generation
per year. They need host plants on which
they can lay eggs, "bed & breakfast"
plants specific to each species, where the
young caterpillars can feed and grow until 
becoming chrysalides & then butterflies.
This butterfly was observed feeding on
two plants of Rose Campion for over
two hours at the Gatehouse Garden,
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island. 

Culture: Rose Campion is easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun, but will take some light shade. Prefers moist soil, but will tolerate some dryness. 

Cultivation:
Sow seed in situ in spring, or start in containers in a cold frame. Since it is classified as a self-seeder, seeds can be cast out successfully in the autumn. Nothing ever seems to bother this plant.

Let the last blooms go to seed so the Lychnis will re-seed itself. If re-seeding is not desired, cut the stems back to basal growth after flowering.

"When we plant butterfly host plants and nectar-rich flowers, clean up the garden carefully--being aware and protective of small caterpillars and chrysalides. By voiding the use of pesticides and herbicides, our gardens can become havens for the butterflies of the Northwest, places where they can safely feed, mate, and bring up their next generations." 

Log House Plants/ OR.

Shaw Island connection: Elizabeth Jones grew this flower in her natural garden, where this writer observed them growing happily without deer fence protection. 

🌿 Gwen's "Welsh Poppies" 🌿 (Papaver cambricum)

"Gwen's Welsh Poppies" 
Papaver cambricum 
var. Aurantiaca
Photo: 1980s, Shaw Island, WA.

Common name: "Welsh Poppies"

Type: Perennial

Native Region: Western Europe

Growing Region: USDA Zone 6-8

Preferred Climate: Temperate.

Maintenance: Low.

Degree of Difficulty: EASY

Tolerates: Will grow in damp or dry conditions. This poppy made it through 
the blooming period without being molested by local deer at the Gatehouse Garden.

Description:
If you are looking for an easy Papaver to grow, this is it. A tap-rooted hardy perennial, this plant produces a succession of yellow to orange blooms that will brighten any garden. Height, 18 inches.

Cultivation:
For maximum freshness, please keep the seed refrigerated in its original packaging until it is time to plant. Sow seeds where they are to be grown in spring or fall. Easy to just broadcast out. Grow in humusy, moist but well-drained slightly acidic soil in sun to part shade.
Easy, reliable, and undemanding.

Notes: 

Welsh poppies are grown at the well-known, exuberant Great Dixter estate garden in southern England, at the Washington State Extension display garden in Mount Vernon, WA., and then they kept sailing west to find their way across the saltwater to grow happily on Shaw Island for at least, the last 40 years. See the name change in the caption below.
     

PAPAVER CAMBRICUM
 Shaw Island seedpod harvest. 
Botanists have officially changed the name from
Meconopsis cambrica under which we had
previously listed this specimen.
Now it is officially a POPPY.

🌿 Carol's Foxgloves 🌿 (DIGITALIS PURPUREA)

Carol’s Foxgloves
Digitalis purpurea (mixed)
Shaw Island, WA.
Photo courtesy of gardener Carol.

Native Region: Europe

Growing Region: USDA Zone 4-9

Preferred Climate: Suited to a wide range of conditions.

Description: Mixed colors of white, shell pink to deep rose, lavender, and purple. This is one of the truly grand, old-fashioned flowers of that almost mythical English Cottage Garden, that so many people strive to recreate. This biennial produces attractive rosettes of large leaves the first year, with tall spikes of flowers 3 to 6-ft or more in height the 2nd year. Handsome, large spikes and drooping bell-shaped blooms spotted inside, during their second year. 
Extremely attractive to bees.

Maintenance: Easy if watered in dry weather. Grows in almost any soil but prefers humus-rich soil in partial shade.

Tolerates: Shaw Island DEER.

Foxgloves growing on the north shore
in the Stitt family garden, Shaw Island.
L-R:  Mae & Dave M. Stitt
visiting his parents, 
Bertie Stitt & David P. Stitt (1862-1949) 
 4th July 1937. 
Click photo to enlarge.
Courtesy of William B. Evans,
a Stitt relative, 
 and helpful history informant 
for Shaw Island archivists.

      Medicinal: A classic example of a drug derived from a plant formerly used by folklorists and herbalists.
One of the few wildflowers to be well received in the garden. 

The whole foxglove plant is extremely poisonous. Fortunately, it tastes very bitter and causes irritation of the membranes in the mouth. It also causes diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, so if it does go in, it soon comes out.

Sowing: outdoors from September to October on the surface as the seeds need light to germinate, in pots or in-situ. 

Days to sprout: 14-21.

Notes: Carol imported her original seeds from Saltspring Island, Gulf Island Archipelago, BC. Digitalis viability is 2-3 years so keep the seed in the fridge if you didn't get a chance to cast them out after purchase.
Foxgloves grow in almost any soil except in very wet or very dry. Prefers humus-rich soil in partial shade.

Foxglove flowers in an arrangement supposedly make the other flowers last longer.

White Digitalis
mixed with the other colors.

According to Elizabeth Murray in Monet's Passion, this flower is grown at the painter's garden at Giverny.

Foxgloves
(Digitalis purpurea)
flanked by Linaria, 
Angel's garden, Shaw Island, 2003.

Digitalis is an introduced species, but becoming "almost native." The bees would like to see more in cultivation.

My favorite book for research on this particular specimen:

"The best of all foxgloves is the wild species of woods and banks––it is almost impertinent to try to 'improve' a plant of such elegance and charm. A hardy biennial, with rosettes of leaves at the base, the flower is too well-known to need lengthy description. It has drooping tubes of flowers up one side of the stalk in mid-summer. The flowers are in shades of purple, white, or sometimes a pure and lovely pink, richly spotted inside.
      The foxglove is very much a cottage plant, brought in from the wild over many centuries for herbal use, and is one of the few plants still used in modern medicine, a treatment for heart disease. The cottage paintings of Helen Allingham, a friend of Ruskin, Tennyson, and Browning, which now fetch high prices in the salesroom, nearly always have foxgloves waving among the roses and pansies by the cottage door.
      There is room for foxgloves in almost every garden which boasts a tree or a few shrubs, for it likes a little shade; it prefers light soil, with some humus. Being biennial, seed should be sown in two successive years to get continuity of flower; after which it will seed itself forever. The hybrid 'Excelsior' strain, which I deplore, has horizontal flowers clumsily crowded all around the stalk, but there is a pleasant perennial foxglove, D. grandiflora, with yellow flowers.
      Foxgloves look best scattered among plants as unpretentious as themselves and the tall, pink-flowered rose species, Rosa glauca, with leaves of soft blue-green on red stalks, makes a perfect background. 
      Foxgloves require no staking, no feeding, no dosing for disease, and the leaves provide winter ground cover. What more can any plant be asked to give?"
      Pg 93-94; Published by Summit Books, a Division of Simon and Schuster, New York. 1988.

      

Fresh foxglove seeds for sale
at the Gatehouse, Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.