Googling I find references, including an excerpt from G Thomas' book PERENNIAL GARDEN PLANTS saying the plant belongs under D. x mertonensis and another page where in a sort of blog someone is saying they are planting seeds of 'Dropmore Yellow' this year.
Hi Ron B Graham Stuart Thomas does refer to D.grandiflora 'Dropmore Yellow' under his entry for D.mertonensis. I suspect this is because Dropmore Yellow is a result of the same cross D.purpurea and D.grandiflora. It shares the same coarse leaf form and has large flowers, but resulted in yellow flowers instead of pink. I suspect it is also more hardy than D.mertonensis. If you can expand on who is sowing seeds this year, I would be very grateful Graham Veals
If you believe it to belong to that cross you should call it D. x mertonensis 'Dropmore Yellow'. Listing it as D. grandiflora 'Dropmore Yellow' indicates it is a pure form of that species rather than a hybrid cultivar. 8th hit in list. http://www.google.com/search?q=drop...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Hi Ron B The main reasons I suspect that it is a cross of sone sort is based on the following:- 1).Graham Struart Thomas does not refer to it under D.grandoflora, but makes a passing reference to it under D. x mertonensis, to quote " ....... 'Dropmore Yellow' is a name which fits here. Evergreen." His reference is inconclusive but could suggest he also thinks it is a yellow mertonensis. 2).Dr. Frank Skinner, who produced the plant at his nursery in Manitoba, Canada, in the 1920-30's, spent a good part of his time deliberatly crossing plants from milder climates with plants from his local region or regions with a similar climate to his own. The aim being to pruduce hardier cultivars, more suited to the Canadian climate. Having produced this Digitalis, he called D.grandiflora 'Dropmore Yellow'. It is reputed to be hardier than other D.grandiflora and he probably introduced this characteristic by crossing D.grandiflora with something else. However without access to his notes, if they still exisr, we will not know. 3).When I approached Terry Baker, who holds the U.K. National Digitalis Collection, and asked him if he had D.g.'Dropmore Yellow', he replied 'no but it is like a yellow mertonensis and is proibably a result of a similar cross.'. He also suspected that it had disappeared from cultivation. I admit none of this is conclusive, and if it is a result of the same cross then perhaps it should be reclassified as you suggest. Hoever I currently do not have access to the plant, nor do I feel I am sufficiently qualified to challenge such eminent names as Dr. Frank Skinner or Graham Stuart Thomas. My main objective at the moment is to try to track it down, so that I might be able draw my own conclusions. If you have any information thar might lead to me obtaining the plant I would be very grateful.
All pointing to it almost certainly being a hybrid, Skinner referring to it as D. grandiflora being the only sticking point. Perhaps he also had the not uncommon habit of incorrectly listing hybrids as pure forms of one of the parents, or at least did so in this instance. When parentage of a hybrid cultivar is not known or it does not belong to a cross with a hybrid binomial (such as D. x mertonensis) in use then it is listed under its cultivar name only. In this case it would be D. 'Dropmore Yellow'.
If I may quote from the man himself: F. L. Skinner's own "Horticultural Horizons" (Plant Breeding And Introduction At Dropmore, Manitoba). "I have never been able to get the old fashioned foxglove (D. purpurea) to overwinter out-of-doors at Dropmore, but its close relative, the dwarf Digitalis alpina, has proved hardy, and I have often thought of trying to raise a hybrid race that would have the grace of the foxglove and also flowers of a variety of colours. Digitalis ambigua and D. orientalis, both yellow-flowered perennials, have proved hardy, and I have already raised a hybrid between them that combines the long flower-stem of D. orientalis with the large flowers of D. ambigua. This I named "Dropmore Yellow" (Plate 61, page 126)." The plate is a poor color reproduction of a large flowered pale yellow Digitalis which he notes "stays in bloom most of the summer." D. orientalis= D. grandiflora ? D. ambigua=D. grandiflora ? Things get curiouser and curiouser.... Kristl Gardens North
International Plant Names Index web site lists these combinations: Digitalis grandiflora Lam. = ambigua Digitalis orientalis Mill. = ambigua Digitalis orientalis Elmig. = lanata Digitalis orientalis Lam. Digitalis ambigua Murr. Digitalis ambigua Willd. ex Ledeb. = Penstemon frutescens Digitalis ambigua Roem. ex Steud. = purpurascens
Since Skinner refers in above excerpt to his Digitalis ambigua and D. orientalis as "both yellow-flowered perennials" it might be taken that he was actually using two different forms of D. ambigua (syn. D. grandiflora) rather than two different species, in which case the 'Dropmore Yellow' would then, in fact, be listed as D. ambigua (D. grandiflora) 'Dropmore Yellow'. Otherwise, maybe his D. ambigua was a yellow-flowered form of D. x purpurascens (syn. D. ambigua Roem. ex Steud.), which is part D. purpurea and therefore explaining impressions that 'Dropmore Yellow' probably belonged to D. x mertonensis. However, if Skinner's picture shows something other than the presumably partly purple 'Dropmore Yellow' that Thomas etc. described in UK maybe the English stock is not actually the true item.
