Digitalis isabelliana

Digitalis isabelliana, Canary Island Foxglove, is a stunning evergreen perennial with attractive lush foliage and an elegant spike of flattened apricot-yellow beak-like flowers. The combination of soft coppery colour and the dramatic shape of the inflorescence together with the toothy dark-green foliage makes for a startlingly exotic plant. Although it will tolerate sun and an exposed aspect it will also do well in partial shade with a moist but well-drained root-run. In the wild it grows in a wooded understory often beneath stands of Canary Island Pine where it experiences both sun and partial shade and an arid substrate that is kept moist but not waterlogged by the warm summer winds that bring in moisture-laden clouds. Feed it during the growing season with a liquid fertiliser - tomato feed is perfect - and prune it back so it doesn't get too leggy once it has finished flowering.

Digitalis isabelliana has done its fair share of taxonomic wanderings from genus to genus over the years and is still often given the synonym Isoplexis isabelliana. Isoplexis is now considered a section within Digitalis and contains Digitalis sceptrum from Madeira and the three species endemic to the Canary Islands: Digitalis canariensis, Digitalis isabelliana and Digitalis chalcantha. They are distinctive from other species within Digitalis in that their tubular flowers have a large upper lip rather than the large lower lip that characterise other Foxgloves.