Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Group/Class:  Polkadot Series

Brand:  Thompson & Morgan

Description:

This hybrid selection is sterile and does not re-seed; raspberry pink flowers with black dotted throats rise on sturdy spikes above attractive dark green leaves; a biennial that's happiest in part shade with adequate moisture

Ornamental Features

Polkadot Princess Foxglove features bold spikes of pink tubular flowers with hot pink throats and black spots rising above the foliage from mid summer to early fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its oval leaves remain dark green in colour throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Polkadot Princess Foxglove is an herbaceous annual with a rigidly upright and towering form. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It is a good choice for attracting hummingbirds to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Polkadot Princess Foxglove is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Polkadot Princess Foxglove will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity extending to 3 feet tall with the flowers, with a spread of 24 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 18 inches apart. It tends to be leggy, with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, and should be underplanted with lower-growing perennials. Although it's not a true annual, this fast-growing plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat.

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid, and parts of it are known to be toxic to humans and animals, so care should be exercised in planting it around children and pets.

Polkadot Princess Foxglove is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.