I’m really not sure what is happening, but I like it.
I get a feeling for a plant and want to leave it because it speaks to me in some kind of way. And then I find out about the medicine it contains. Sometimes that medicine is food, like the Autumn Olive and its red fruit that has 15 times the lycopene found in tomatoes. Then there are the Sassafras trees at the end of my driveway that were mixed in with scruffy White Pines, which have now been cut back to let the Sassafras have that space. And speaking of White Pine, I have a whole grove of them and they are full of vitamin C.
Then, last year, the Moon Flower showed up.
This year, I left a plant with Comfrey-like leaves right next to my front doorstep, and it recently started to grow a flower stalk. As the flowers bloomed, I figured out that I have a Foxglove right outside my front door. Turns out it’s a biennial, so I must have left it last year, too!
Like Moon Flower, Foxglove (a.k.a Digitalis), is powerful but dangerous medicine. I won’t be messing around with this plant medicinally. I will just admire its beauty, and the fact that it decided to show up and make me smile.
