Foxgloves at Sunset

foxgloves

My Mother’s Garden

Frequent Photo

For fun, I thought I’d insert something from a novel I’ve been struggling with for years.  A little paragraph might as well see some daylight–maybe I’ll get inspired to go back and fix its problems:

A shallow little creek trailed slowly beside the road, its banks lush with growing things. Most plants were natives but some were feral creatures which escaped from settlers’ gardens. One of the flowers, a tall stately foxglove, stood like a stiff green butler, holding out its lavender and white lace mittens for small creatures to slip small paws into.    I knew old-time settlers had sometimes used the flowers as medicine and  I was tempted to put an exploring finger inside one slender hollow and twirl out some digitalis to lick off but country kids had been taught early to keep their hands away from such forbidden dangers and even the thought of putting my finger near the tantalizing creatures caused cautionary tales to start humming through my head and thrumming through my fingertips.

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54 Comments
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MJEAN
Guest
MJEAN
14 years ago

Kym,
Thank you – the foxgloves never looked so beautiful.

archiearchive FCD
Guest
14 years ago

Caught perfectly. An image to remember.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Thank you but, Mom, your garden is so beautiful that it doesn’t take skill to capture what little I got. The wheelbarrow and the purple foxgloves will probably turn up later on another post.

forkboy
Guest
14 years ago

A very fine image. The sort that leads me to believe I’m actually there.

Toni
Guest
14 years ago

Beautiful capture of the foxglove. They are one of my favorite flowers.

Heather
Guest
14 years ago

Can’t wait until I’m there for real! 😀

Heather
Guest
14 years ago

Can’t wait until I’m there for real! 😀

bluelaker4
Guest
bluelaker4
14 years ago

Your Mom’s garden is always so beautiful. I need to hire her.

bluelaker4
Guest
bluelaker4
14 years ago

Your Mom’s garden is always so beautiful. I need to hire her.

ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago

Beautiful, and deadly poison. Even a small nibble of an upper leaf can stop your heart and kill you. The native americans used it to slow rapid heartbeat.

Anna McCarthy
Guest
Anna McCarthy
14 years ago

Ernie you are wrong. See my post on Kym’s blog today the 31st.

ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago

Beautiful, and deadly poison. Even a small nibble of an upper leaf can stop your heart and kill you. The native americans used it to slow rapid heartbeat.

Anna McCarthy
Guest
Anna McCarthy
14 years ago

Ernie you are wrong. See my post on Kym’s blog today the 31st.

ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago

Early Americans.

ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago

Early Americans.

ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago

Kym
Digitalis Purpurea L. is listed by the U.S.D.A. as native to the lower 48 states, and Canada. I have heard many tales (Fact or not) that the native Americans used it as a powerful medicine.

Link= Foxglove

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Gosh darn it, Ernie, now I’m confused. The Northcoast California Native Plant Society says, “foxglove Digitalis purpurea… This popular garden plant has escaped into the wild where it may grow so densely it crowds out native species.” That is why I thought it wasn’t native to this area.

Staff
Member
14 years ago
Reply to  Staff

I just found several accounts that say it is European in origin. In An account of the foxglove and its medical uses, 1785-1985 By J. K. Aronson et al. It says, “…the foxglove was probably not native to America. I looked at your link more closely and Foxglove is an “I” for introduced not a native plant.

Ernie's Place
Guest
14 years ago
Reply to  Staff

Darn it Kym, I’m just not ready to give up on there being a native American Digitalis plant. I have just heard to many folklore stories that predate European introduction. Maybe this is it, american foxglove. but I will do more research. I’m not ready to say conclusively that it was or wasn’t used first by Native Americans. I’d bet that someone out there is smart enough to know.

ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago

Kym
Digitalis Purpurea L. is listed by the U.S.D.A. as native to the lower 48 states, and Canada. I have heard many tales (Fact or not) that the native Americans used it as a powerful medicine.

Link= Foxglove

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Gosh darn it, Ernie, now I’m confused. The Northcoast California Native Plant Society says, “foxglove Digitalis purpurea… This popular garden plant has escaped into the wild where it may grow so densely it crowds out native species.” That is why I thought it wasn’t native to this area.

Staff
Member
14 years ago
Reply to  Staff

I just found several accounts that say it is European in origin. In An account of the foxglove and its medical uses, 1785-1985 By J. K. Aronson et al. It says, “…the foxglove was probably not native to America. I looked at your link more closely and Foxglove is an “I” for introduced not a native plant.

Ernie's Place
Guest
14 years ago
Reply to  Staff

Darn it Kym, I’m just not ready to give up on there being a native American Digitalis plant. I have just heard to many folklore stories that predate European introduction. Maybe this is it, american foxglove. but I will do more research. I’m not ready to say conclusively that it was or wasn’t used first by Native Americans. I’d bet that someone out there is smart enough to know.

silverstar98121
Guest
14 years ago

You have the beginnings of a good story there. Fix the last run-on sentence, and away you go. Beautiful foxgloves, too. Foxglove has long been used to treat heart problems. You have to know how, or it is very dangerous. I would stick to the nice, standardized pills we have which are made of it these days.

silverstar98121
Guest
14 years ago

You have the beginnings of a good story there. Fix the last run-on sentence, and away you go. Beautiful foxgloves, too. Foxglove has long been used to treat heart problems. You have to know how, or it is very dangerous. I would stick to the nice, standardized pills we have which are made of it these days.

Ernie's Place
Guest
14 years ago

Your word press just presed my words again. They disappeared, into thin blogosphere.

Staff
Member
14 years ago
Reply to  Ernie's Place

Ernie, you’re putting your url address in incorrectly and WordPress gets snippy when you do. You put an n instead of a b in blogspot.

Ernie's Place
Guest
14 years ago

Your word press just presed my words again. They disappeared, into thin blogosphere.

Staff
Member
14 years ago
Reply to  Ernie's Place

Ernie, you’re putting your url address in incorrectly and WordPress gets snippy when you do. You put an n instead of a b in blogspot.

Ernie's Place
Guest
14 years ago

It was late, I was tired, my glasses were fuzzy… I’ll try just pasting it in directly after the link, just in case I screw it up again.

Digitalis Nativus Americanus wildus flowerus

http://www.easywildflowers.com/quality/pen.digit.htm

Ernie's Place
Guest
14 years ago

It was late, I was tired, my glasses were fuzzy… I’ll try just pasting it in directly after the link, just in case I screw it up again.

Digitalis Nativus Americanus wildus flowerus

http://www.easywildflowers.com/quality/pen.digit.htm

Ernie's Place
Guest
14 years ago

Fixed it!

ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago
ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago
ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago

Kym,
Click on these digitalis plants, many are native to the U.S.

Apparently the purpurea is not.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

That explains the difference! I had had the same impression until a couple years ago. Now that I know there are two kinds I understand the confusion.

ernie@branscombcenter.com
Guest
14 years ago

Kym,
Click on these digitalis plants, many are native to the U.S.

Apparently the purpurea is not.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

That explains the difference! I had had the same impression until a couple years ago. Now that I know there are two kinds I understand the confusion.

olm
Guest
olm
14 years ago

hi Kym –

Perhaps you’ve already seen this article: passing it on, fyi.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/garden/21poison.html

AT HOME WITH AMY STEWART
Warning: Paralysis May Result
By JOYCE WADLER
New York Times
Published: May 20, 2009
EUREKA, Calif.

HERE we are, squatting in the chocolate-scented mulch of Amy Stewart’s poison garden. The smell comes from the cocoa hulls. Good thing you’re not a dog; according to Ms. Stewart, the theobromine in the hulls, should you chomp down enough, could lead to vomiting.

Don’t get cocky, though. Ms. Stewart, the author of “Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities” (Algonquin), a new book that inspired the coming “Wicked Plants” exhibition at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, has plenty of plants on hand to deal with any human who annoys her. And you know how sensitive authors on the cusp of publication can be….. (the rest of the article can be accessed via the link above.)
——————————————-

Amy Stewart has a blog, too: “Dirt: a blog by Amy Stewart”
http://blog.amystewart.com/

olm
Guest
olm
14 years ago

hi Kym –

Perhaps you’ve already seen this article: passing it on, fyi.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/garden/21poison.html

AT HOME WITH AMY STEWART
Warning: Paralysis May Result
By JOYCE WADLER
New York Times
Published: May 20, 2009
EUREKA, Calif.

HERE we are, squatting in the chocolate-scented mulch of Amy Stewart’s poison garden. The smell comes from the cocoa hulls. Good thing you’re not a dog; according to Ms. Stewart, the theobromine in the hulls, should you chomp down enough, could lead to vomiting.

Don’t get cocky, though. Ms. Stewart, the author of “Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities” (Algonquin), a new book that inspired the coming “Wicked Plants” exhibition at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, has plenty of plants on hand to deal with any human who annoys her. And you know how sensitive authors on the cusp of publication can be….. (the rest of the article can be accessed via the link above.)
——————————————-

Amy Stewart has a blog, too: “Dirt: a blog by Amy Stewart”
http://blog.amystewart.com/

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Olm, I love Amy’s blog but hadn’t read this article. The reporter is actually rather good and made me chuckle several times.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Olm, I love Amy’s blog but hadn’t read this article. The reporter is actually rather good and made me chuckle several times.

olm
Guest
olm
14 years ago

Figured you were, at the very least, familiar with author.

Picked up the book yesterday, post-post. It has an old-timey, almanac-y /materia medica look and feel to the cover and pages, with an attached gold ribbon bookmark.

(In the brand-new, unopened copy I selected for purchase, the ribbon was already set between the pages for lophora williamsii.)

Here’s a bit from an NYT blog regarding the Wicked Plants exhibition, opening this weekend at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/plants-show-off-their-sinister-sides/

olm
Guest
olm
14 years ago

Figured you were, at the very least, familiar with author.

Picked up the book yesterday, post-post. It has an old-timey, almanac-y /materia medica look and feel to the cover and pages, with an attached gold ribbon bookmark.

(In the brand-new, unopened copy I selected for purchase, the ribbon was already set between the pages for lophora williamsii.)

Here’s a bit from an NYT blog regarding the Wicked Plants exhibition, opening this weekend at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/plants-show-off-their-sinister-sides/

olm
Guest
olm
14 years ago

Here’s a list, with links, of other articles by that same NYT writer, Joyce Wadler:
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/w/joyce_wadler/index.html?inline=nyt-per

(That NYT blog writer’s middle initial ~is~ actually the number “8”, btw: that’s not a typo!)

Anna McCarthy
Guest
Anna McCarthy
14 years ago
Reply to  olm

Actually a small nibble will not stop your heart. The old doctors used leaves because they could control the dose accurately by your response and it makes your heart stronger – it’s in an early Andrew Weil book. Our modern day digitalis is cumulative and the most commonly over dosed drug in the materia medica. The modern drug gives so many old people the runs after a while – saw it in my own father. That doesn’t mean you should try it out on your own. Aconite and conium are more dangerous.

olm
Guest
olm
14 years ago

Here’s a list, with links, of other articles by that same NYT writer, Joyce Wadler:
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/w/joyce_wadler/index.html?inline=nyt-per

(That NYT blog writer’s middle initial ~is~ actually the number “8”, btw: that’s not a typo!)

Anna McCarthy
Guest
Anna McCarthy
14 years ago
Reply to  olm

Actually a small nibble will not stop your heart. The old doctors used leaves because they could control the dose accurately by your response and it makes your heart stronger – it’s in an early Andrew Weil book. Our modern day digitalis is cumulative and the most commonly over dosed drug in the materia medica. The modern drug gives so many old people the runs after a while – saw it in my own father. That doesn’t mean you should try it out on your own. Aconite and conium are more dangerous.

Anna McCarthy
Guest
Anna McCarthy
14 years ago

It’s on page 102- 105 of Andrew Weil’s Health and Healing book. One of his best books if not his best.

Anna McCarthy
Guest
Anna McCarthy
14 years ago

It’s on page 102- 105 of Andrew Weil’s Health and Healing book. One of his best books if not his best.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Thank you both. The extra information is nice to know.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Thank you both. The extra information is nice to know.

Mark W
Guest
14 years ago

beautiful picture, Kym!

I have a lot of foxglove here too, but not of such varied coloring.

Love the new look of your blog….

Mark

Mark W
Guest
14 years ago

beautiful picture, Kym!

I have a lot of foxglove here too, but not of such varied coloring.

Love the new look of your blog….

Mark