I maybe naive but I have never heard of Japanese Foxgloves......are they any different from the bog standard English ones we see in our cottage gardens and roadsides?

Hi same here never heard of the Japanese Foxglove - But the Foxglove in general is a biennial - You need to gather the seeds and regrow it for next year - Ken

There are many species of Digitalis (foxglove) from around the world and most are perennial. We have one from the Himalaya. After that, I must say that I have not heard of Japanese Foxglove. As far as I know they are all hardy so, if the plants are larger than plugs, they should be all right planted out.

There is a Chinese foxglove (rehmannia elata) if that's the one you mean?

Just Googled this out of curiosity and found this similar question.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/carolgard/msg0501591514056.html

There are also a few pictures on a different site if you look for images.

Thanks all of you for your thoughts, I have done some research on Google and on comparing the picture I was given with those on the website they appear to be Chinese Foxglove not Japanese Thanks everyone for your comments.

This is second year of my Chinese foxglove and they are doing well and have formed a nice clump, they appear to be totally hardy

Good to hear that, thanks for the feedback, Kaiglen.