One of the highlights of the gardening club calendar is the annual potato competition. At our February meeting, members are given a seed potato which is chitted and then planted in a container. At the end of July the potatoes are harvested and the member with the heaviest crop wins £10 and chooses the variety for next year’s competition.

The variety that we planted this year, Saxon, was provided by Joan Palmer. This was a new variety for many of us. They are a second early variety, with strong resistance to diseases. They hold the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit for their performance and reliability. Saxon is considered a great all rounder, so can be boiled, roasted, chipped or mashed and is highly regarded as one of the best tasting potato varieties.
Nationally this year, potato crops have been poor due to the sustained heatwaves, the driest July on record and in some areas extreme drought conditions. However, this did not stop Judy Robertson harvesting an impressive 1.36kg and Joan Palmer with a close second harvest of 1.14kg. Many members however reported small crops with barely enough for one meal, but very tasty potatoes. As for me, well there is always next year.​

In July, we decided to meet informally at Stockton Bury Gardens, near Leominster for a cuppa and a look around the gardens. But with temperature predicted to be in excess of 30 degrees, Stockton Bury decided to close early each afternoon and so our visit was cancelled.

This gave me a dilemma about what to write for August’s edition of this magazine, but it seemed like a good opportunity to republish an article written by our former president Dr John Bell, who sadly passed away earlier this year.
John wrote so beautifully and his articles were extremely informative, so I have chosen ‘Foxgloves’. There is something quite magical about them and John used his medical knowledge and expertise to enlighten us about the use of this common but versatile plant in modern medicine.

The name ‘foxglove’ is as old as the time of Edward III. In Wales it is thought to be the hideout of fairies and so is called ‘fairy folks finger’ or ‘lamb’s tongue leaves’. In Scotland, it is called ‘bloody fingers’ and moving further north ‘dead men’s bells! The Scandinavian legend regarding the prefix ‘fox’ tells that mischievous fairies gave the fox flowers to muffle his paws as he prowled around village hen houses.
Digitalis is a genus of about 20 species, mainly perennials, shrubs and biennials. It grows over large areas of the world and the best-known is Common Foxglove Digitalis purpurea. It thrives in acidic soils in partial sunlight to deep shade, commonly found where the ground has been recently disturbed. Country lore advises its use in companion planting, where it is suggested that placing it around apples, tomatoes and potatoes simultaneously, stimulates growth of these plants.
In 1775, Dr William Withering working at the new Birmingham general Hospital, was treating a patient for heart failure, the treatment was failing. The patient sought an herbal remedy from a gypsy woman and recovered which aroused Dr Withering’s interest. He found a woman in Shropshire and learned from her the concoction of herbs which included the foxglove. This was at the time the traditional cure for dropsy, a condition suggested by the swelling of the tissues due to the poor action of a failing heart. He knew that the extract from foxgloves was potentially fatal. He spent ten years experimenting to find a safe standard dosage, sometimes trying the infusions on himself. In 1885, he published his research with over 150 successful cases, and it followed that an extract of powdered leaf was used for treatment in medicine.
Prior to this date, going back some 100 years, foxgloves were recommended for skin complaints with the leaves applied directly to wounds as a poultice. The entire plant is toxic, including the roots and seeds, but Dr Withering used the Digitalis purpurea extract containing cardiac glycosides which increase the contractile muscle power of the heart, as well as being an antiarrhythmic agent to control the heart rate.It is thought that this was the beginning of modern therapeutics. Digitalis lantana is grown commercially for pharmaceutical use.
Though there are over 20 species of digitalis in cultivation, only a few enter the plant catalogues and hence into private gardens. The genus is placed in the figwort family, Scophulariaceae. The flowers of the foxglove Digitalis purpurea are produced on a tall spike in the second year of growth. In the first year only one stem develops with long basal leaves but in its second year the long leafy stem grows to over 100 inches.
D. purpurea ‘Apricot’ has delicate shades of apricot-coloured flowers. D. purpurea Pam’s Choice’ has dense spikes of large creamy white bell flowers and splotches of deep burgundy colour in their throats. D. ferruginea Rusty foxglove has striking almost globular rusty red coloured flowers on long leafy spikes. D. lutea , the small yellow foxglove has glossy green leaves and pretty yellow flowers crowded down to one side of the spike. A larger, but short lived, yellow/white flowered species is D. grandiflora. D. x Mertonensis is a very fine hybrid described as having flowers the colour of crushed strawberries!

Dr John Bell and Bev Harris 

 The next club meeting at Stoke St Milborough village hall is on February 12th when Nancy Lowe will be talking about ‘The Secret Life of the Soil’.

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The Secret Life of the Soil
Find out all about the hidden life of the soil and what every gardener needs to know about this fascinating realm of life. Learn about recent studies into plant to plant communication, how to cultivate self-feeding flower beds and how to harness healthy soil for increased drought tolerance and for plants with natural pest and disease repelling qualities.
This talk includes up to date science, along with tales from Nancy’s home project, bringing the near-dead and heavily compacted soil beneath a concrete covered farmyard back to life, creating from it a thriving garden, full of food, flowers and wildlife.

We first met Nancy last February, when she gave her talk on ‘Gardening with Wildflowers’. We enjoyed it so much that we are looking forward to welcoming her back again this year.

​More about Nancy can be found at https://www.thenaturalgardener.org.uk/

If you would like to join us at our next gardening club meeting, then please come along to Stoke St Milborough Village Hall on Thursday 12 th February. Nancy’s talk will begin at 2.30pm, but there is tea, coffee cake and biscuits available beforehand and a chance to chat with other gardeners, so do come early. The hall is open at 2.00pm.