Nomenclatural nightmare

Another day of mixed weather - some sunshine, some wind, some drizzle. This is getting to be the usual

I spent a few hours riddling compost and bagging it up ready to take down the the Walled Garden at Glencruitten sometime soon. I shall use it mostly on my tattie bed - next year I'll swap over and the tattie bed will become the pea and bean bed.

I haven't been off the property today, so my Blip is of an inquisitive otter inspecting my plant of Digitalis x valinii 'Foxlight Plum Gold'. The series is called Foxlight and there are many equally odd named varieties. Last year I grew one called 'Berry Canary'. 

Here comes another rant. Originally this hybrid was a cross between our native foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, and a shrubby relative from the Canary Isles which went by the name of Isoplexis canariensis. The flowers were similar to a foxglove, but the plant is a true shrub, unlike the foxglove, which is a biennial. I grew this for a number of years at Arduaine, though it's not very hardy and it eventually got frosted. The original hybrid was known as x Digiplexis canariensis. 

Now it turns out that some bored taxonomist has decided that the shrubby Isoplexis canariensis is actually a foxglove, so the hybrid is between two foxgloves and has now been named Digitalis x valinii. It's enough to make me take up gambling as a hobby!