… are named for what it sounds like – some poetic Anglo-Saxon imagined them as bed slippers for the small black paws of foxes; ‘foxes glofa.’

Or at least – that’s what some folks say. Etymologists argue over whether the ‘fox’ part was originally ”folk’s’, a shortening of ‘good folks,’ the old Anglo-Saxon name for fairies. The French call them gantelee, or ‘little glove;’ the Germans, fingerhut or ‘thimble.’ The Latin name for the flower, digitalis, just means ‘finger.’ It’s all kind of interesting, but I just enjoy the flowers as they sway in the breeze on a May farm morning with the birds singing and the bees buzzing. As they will be, less than 6 weeks from now.