Cottage Gardening: All About Foxgloves in the Garden

Every time I share any photos of the garden – I get a ton of questions about foxgloves. How to grow them. Where to plant them. What types are they. Are they poisonous and how do you plant them to get them so full. And more. Though I have written before about Foxgloves- I thought I would answer some of those new questions along with the original post- and it is an every year share that gets updated since there is always so much interest.

About Foxgloves

 Digitalis purpurea, which is what the common foxglove is named is native to Europe. The flowers are tubular, speckled (sometimes clear) and they bloom in shades of purple, rose, pink, apricot, yellow, white or sometimes bi-color as well. They grow well from seeds and will bloom for two to three months starting in late spring. They are biennial plants, which means foxgloves take two years to fully flower. And they are happy re-seeding plants-just let them dry and drop seeds in the garden – or a tip I heard recently was to cut the stalks and just lay them down in the garden and they will re-seed on their own that way too.

The curious case of the gophers… We added several new foxgloves to the garden a couple years ago and the next morning, we were surprised to see a couple of them wilting. We thought they maybe got shocked a bit or something like that- but when we checked- we found that the plant tops were completely off of the roots. Something had eaten the plant at the base and killed it. Which is pretty surprising actually- because foxgloves are known to be ‘resistant’ plants- meaning animals won’t eat them. They have come through and tackled all the allium overnight along with some of the bulbs that never grew in again- they were enjoyed as well. We have tried the wire cages. No luck there so we have since started planting the garden beds with plants in thin plastic pots in the ground that allow roots of the plant to grow through but not have them totally exposed to gophers who seem to like to eat foxgloves.

Foxgloves in our Garden

We have planted several types of foxgloves in our garden. I am pretty much obsessed with almost all of them- but my favorite colors are whites, purples and peach. And so, those are the ones I load up on the most. While we found a huge amount of purples this year- we also lucked out with some white varieties and a couple ‘rose’ which is a darker pink color.

A favorite which we haven’t seen this year is peach. Peach Dalmatian or Apricot Beauty are gorgeous blushing peach colors. We have some planted from previous years but not in this area of the garden (yet!).

Pale Lavender

Some of the purples we found were a creamy pale purple color I believe it is called Camelot Lavender. In the sunset light- they appear to blush a bit – which is so pretty.

Dalmatian Purple

You can see the Dalmatian Purple mixed in this are as well- they are the more bold pink color and are the smaller foxgloves here. As you might have noticed- not all foxgloves are as big and tall as others.

White Foxgloves

We have several varieties of shades of White foxgloves as well. We did find a couple this year for the new area- as I mentioned – but we also have some that grew back from previous plantings. Something to note with foxgloves- the ‘spots’ on the inside can be dark or light- so depending on if you like the ‘speckled’ look- you can choose your foxglove type accordingly.

This is Dalmatian White- with the speckles.

And Camelot White- with lighter speckles.

They also have a more pure white Foxglove called Snow Thimble.

Rose Foxgloves

We also have a few Rose colored foxgloves. To be honest, these are ones that have grown back from several years ago so not sure just what variety they are but I think Dalmation Rose.

My husband recently found a very soft lemon color foxglove and we tucked a few into the garden this spring. I will update you on what they look like as they grow in and bloom fully. So far they look like they will be lovely.

Foxgloves, People & Pets

A common question- are foxgloves poisonous? Yes they are. You don’t want to eat them of course, but some also say to also use caution when handling them. I have not had a problem with handling them but some might be sensitive. A few important tips:

Plant them away from edible garden plantings- Aka – Don’t include them in your veggie garden- their leaves look like edible leaves but are definitely Not.

Don’t let your curious pets nibble on them, keep young children away from them, etc. – be safe and don’t leave anyone unattended with them. Most animals know that something is toxic and will leave it alone- hence the plants that are labeled as ‘deer resistant’ – which foxglove is. But since you don’t know how your pets or grands will be around them or if they are more curious than others might be- be careful to be safe and just keep them away from them.

Our chickens, goats and grands wander down the garden paths lined with foxgloves. But of course, we don’t let them wander here alone, we don’t leave them unattended and we don’t let them climb through the garden beds. On that same note- we have not had a problem with any animals eating or even going near them in the 20 or so years we have had foxgloves- even before we knew that they were poisonous. Until a couple of years ago with the moles or gophers eating the roots of them and killing the entire plant- which was very strange. We have since started planting them in cracked containers in the dirt in the garden beds- they seem to leave them alone and the roots can climb through enough to grow but not kill the plant if eaten.

Where to Plant Foxgloves

We have ours in a morning sun/afternoon shade area. We do have some that have popped up in full sun- but the hot California sun can be a bit much for them so they aren’t in the best spot.

We also have had them in containers- like whiskey barrels and zinc pots.

How to plant for fullness

I kind of covered that a bit in a recent post – but basically, the method to my madness is plant them all. haha. Okay- not really. But kind of. 🙂 Something you may not have noticed about our garden areas are that I am big on a lot of the same. Meaning- I don’t want 37 types of plants in this garden area- I want a lot of what I love. So, I plant a lot of foxgloves to get that look. Layer them in zig zag type formations and in abundance for a similar look. And remember to plant them two years in a row -because they don’t bloom each year. I look at it as an excuse to add a few more each spring. 🙂

Want more?

Click on over to the original blog post I wrote- 8 things to know about Foxgloves for even more info.

I hope this additional information helps. Stay tuned for more on the moles/gophers and garden debacle.

Happy Gardening all.