Gloves for flying foxes

[shewhomust]

There's a foxglove in my garden, under the elder tree. It is - they are both - self-seeded, because that's how my garden is. I've been watching it grow since it was just a rosette of leaves, and now it is as tall as I am. There's no picture of how tall it is, because it's a tall, linear thing and it just vanishes into the background. So instead, here's a picture of how foxglovey it is:

Those bells start at three feet off the ground, so the fox would have to be jumping quite high to get its paws into them - and foxes probably can do that, but this would have to be quite a small fox, or they wouldn't fit.



The bells at the top aren't open yet, and I keep expecting it to straightern out as they open:

But that doesn't seem to be happening, and meanwhile the flowers at the bottom of the pile are dropping off, into the ground.

In profile, they look like pink pettincoats hanging on the washing line.

Happy midsummer!

Comments

[cmcmck]

Nice!

The local woodland is now full of them!

[shewhomust]

Thanks! They do look good en masse, don't they?

[sovay]

So instead, here's a picture of how foxglovey it is

It's beautiful!

[shewhomust]

It's beautiful!

Thank you! (Not that I can take any credit for that ...)

[athenais]

It's a lovely thing.

[shewhomust]

Not as lovely as your roses, but a delight in its own way.

[poliphilo]

We planted foxgloves this year. We didn't really need to because a whole bunch of self-seeded ones have shown up. They're among my favourite flowers.

[shewhomust]

No doubt it's possible to plant interesting varieties, and choose your colour - but did you?

[anef]

We too have some self-seeded purple fox-gloves (from next door who have a semi-wild front garden). But I would love some white ones and I can't get them to grow beyond one year. Maybe I'll just have to accept that I need to keep re-planting.

[shewhomust]

I don't know what causes this variation: there's a clump of bluebells not far from here which are mixed blue, white and pink, and that seems constant year after year - does it depend how many there are, perhaps? I'm sure I've seen white ones growing wild ...

[boybear]

M. calls her self-seeded plants "Volunteers"..

[shewhomust]

Some volunteers are more welcome than others.

[cellio]

How cheerful! Those are lovely, as is visualizing a fox trying to avail itself of them.

[shewhomust]

Thankyou!