I have worked through quite a lot of digitalis, especially in the wood, but the ones I return to are heywoodii 'Silver Fox' and d.obscura which both do well on the sunny allotment. I have never grown them in a container as the lower leaves often look pretty sordid by the time the flowering spike is in full flow. I don't like to see them grown as specimen plants at all: imo, these are plants made for a wild garden or informal borders, best seen in the company of exuberant foliage or shrubs.

I ocassionally come across a good purple coloured purpurea, but never bother saving seeds because all the foxgloves have been got at by busy bees.

I sprinkle foxglove seed amongst my gardens to fill in here and there. The individual plants are short lived here so I wouldn't spend real money on them. They bloom for a couple of weeks - not long enough to use in a container. Yes, there's rebloom but those secondary spikes are shorties.

I generally never plant foxgloves - they are widely naturalized here and spring up spontaneously in my mostly shady garden. Almost a weed :-) I do favor the purpurea cultivar 'Pam's Choice' for its marked coloring (it is also my name and NOT pink - big pluses :-)) - I also have hellebores with similar maroon spotting in the white flowers - but must replant frequently as it will mix with the naturalized forms and lose any distinctions in subsequent generations.

In a previous garden, I grew D. ferruginea and obscura - true perennials - but requiring very different growing conditions than common foxglove. Not nearly enough sun here!!

I don't consider any foxglove a great container subject - too short a season of interest and most grow too tall - but I guess you could if you really wanted to :-))

I have tried a few in the past and most recently grew some Excelsior from seeds. It had some purplish pink in the mix . I liked them a lot. I thought they bloomed a long time but I don't remember exactly how long. One lone plant came back the following year and bloomed well. I didn't get much reseeding. There are a few little seedlings out there right now. I did scatter seed but don't think my conditions are good for reseeding. I might just buy some more seeds which I would start in a flat indoors and plant out little plants later for bloom next year.

'Pink Panther', first year flowering, very heavy at that, has wintered for a second go around, blooms early from a March sowing, a sterile hybrid, a fantastic compact bedder, would be excellent in container due to continuous flowering ability!

I love the vivid pink of it FrozeBud! Where did you get your seed?

Markay, yes, sure is a beauty isn't it! I purchase the seeds from Stokes Seeds Canada, though am sure you can obtain through an American seed outlet :)

Thanks EVERYONE, all good info to learn and to save to my garden files! Nothing better than real gardeners talking abour their real garden experiences!

Re: Foxgloves....

Markay MD-Zone7A or anyone who would like to answer...I've been searching the internet to find information on Foxgloves being F1 varieties or true to seed varieties...can anyone share a link please? And are there other varieties like F2 or F3 ? I'd love to learn about this. Thanks!

Any of the Polkadot collection are worth searching out - Polly, Princess, Pandora: all sterile,therefore long blooming and acting as short-lived perennials. Have grown all these and can attest to the longevity of the bloom cycle and, as they tend to be more compact than d.purpurea, they can work in containers. I think the Dalmation seriesmight be interesting too - Sue, especially Dalmation Purple.

I adore Sutton's Apricot. It's such a beautiful shade and complements so many of the flowers I grow. Lovely with blues, deep purples, as well as white and yellows. I bet it'd be great with red, but I don't have much of that. Hmm. Need to add that one ;) Pictures don't do it justice. It really is apricot. Not too orange, not as pink as the pictures can look.