Foxgloves

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Our cottage-style approach means that the foxglove is an important player in our garden. We started with four plants four years ago and we now have lots of all shades due to inter-pollination. I tie a little piece of cotton around the more interesting spikes (white-pink-spotty) and cut off the others once flowering is completed (watching out for side flower spikes). I then collect the seed from these in the autumn and throw it around the garden. I’m told that foxgloves will slowly revert to all purple if they’re not ‘managed’ in this way.

The other thing is to be careful not to weed out the young plants because they will have the flowers next year. I try to leave them where they are but I also use the garden as a foxglove propagator. The new plants can appear just about anywhere, but if they’re in the wrong place (usually the rockery or in the patio pots), I let them develop a little then prick them out and move them to where I want them.

This year has been tricky to say the least. Strong wind and rain in June has absolutely battered them and what you see below includes quite a lot of tying and cane work. We went away for a weekend and came back to a lot of flattened flower stalks. At least they don’t break off, but they can take on twisty shapes because they keep on growing upwards at the tips when on the ground. Many of our uprighted plants have an ‘S’ shape now!