Foxglove

I had foxglove planted up at the cabin in zone 3 and it bloomed nicely in its second year (last year.) This year, one must have seeded itself as two plants are coming up in the spot where one had been for the last two seasons. Does foxglove typically self-sow? Is it unusual in zone 3? Is it true to the parent plant? Just curious - I grow so few biennials and they are such a mystery to me, but I really love digitalis and would like to know more about how to make them work. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Lily

My mother has to cut the blooms off her foxgloves every year because otherwise they will self-sow like crazy. She sent me a bunch of seed this year and they have done fabulously well. I started them inside under the lights, but she has warned me to only leave the flowers until they are finished and then cut them, unless I want foxgloves everywhere. She is in Canada on the east coast, technically a zone 6, but they don't get the extreme heat that we get here in Iowa, nor the extreme cold. The climate is moderated by the ocean. But they still get a lot of snow. The snow is quite protective I think. Anyway, I imagine they would still self-sow in zone 3, perhaps not quite as prolifically, but they still would have some come along, I would think.
CMox

Thanks! That's good information to have. I had the feeling they might be self-sowers and glad to have that confirmed. Do you know if most varieties are true to the parent plant?

My mother confirms that they are true to the plant, but she has been growing the same ones for a long time. They are a white one, not even sure of the specific cultivar - she has had them for years. I am growing her same white one this year. I sent her some seed for Sutton's Apricot and she's trying that one this year also. I would think any that are open pollinated and not specifically a hybrid would come true to parent. Those that are specialty cultivars that have been developed as hybrids would probably not, although you might get some interesting variations by growing those seeds on!

Here's an example of how they can self-sow. This is on the border between zone 6 and zone 7, but I thought I'd show a little bit of their reproductive power! The summer heat and crowding will wipe most of them out, but there will probably be four to five winners in that little cluster. The seedlings don't mind being disturbed and transplanted at all, though.

Foxgloves are naturalized on my property. They are Digitalis purpurea and Digitalis purpurea 'Alba'. The seedlings range from purple to pure white, with every shade of pink you can imagine in between. The mixes between 'Alba' and the type plant tend to move towards purple, but enough whites cross-pollinate with other whites to keep the pure white strain going. It's nice to watch the different combinations play out.

I know that D. purpurea will readily hybridize with a few others in the genus. I have young plants of laevigata, lutea, ferruginea, and a blooming thapsii 'Spanish Peaks' this year, and I'm looking forward to seeing what will cross with what in the next few years.

The colors of the newer cultivars, like apricot and even some of the older cultivars of yellow foxglove, are probably pretty fragile. I've collected the seed from a yellow cultivar before, but the tendency to revert was strong, and I got mainly light purple offspring. That said, there's always a chance that something new and spectacular might come out of a cross between a wild plant and a fancy cultivar. These plants are a lot of fun.

-Greg

Wow, they are prolific, aren't they?
It will be really interesting to see what I do get. The original plants were a white with purple dots. I have the cultivar name somewhere - just haven't looked it up yet. Now I will, though, as I'll be curious what/how it reverts as I'm sure this was a hybrid. Thanks to both of you. I think I'm going to have some fun!

Lily

Hello there just happened to see your post in a search for something else... but I read that foxglove can be cross polinated by bees... if you have more than one kind they might not come true

D. purpurea has only just had an F1 hybrid made of it that's the Camelots. The other types such as Giant Spotted and Excelsior are selections, some seeds of a selection will come true to parent, however if you don't weed out those who don't conform to the original selection they will eventually revert to the normal Foxglove.

It's true to say that Digitalis species can and do hybridise, however some of the smaller flowered species generally don't because the main pollinators for the larger flowered species like D. purpurea don't fit inside the flowers. Some interesting hybrids do occur between species but can be sterile.

Here on the west coast the common ones grow wild, I have some in my shade garden along my stream. I have a small sitting area I call the blue & white room. Year before last I bought white foxglove seeds to get some white tall stuff growing there. The seeds came up redily & in abundance, I carefully transfered the seedlings to 6 packs & got nearly a flat of plants. Planted them all out in my blue & white room...they grew like gangbusters, some as tall as 6 ft. finally they got buds on them. Bloomed. They were all purple except one plant! Grrrr! So much for my blue & white room.
They did look pretty but I really wanted white! I have dug most of the plants up & moved them elsewhere in my garden. Guess I'll look for a different white flower for next year! Blue flowers are hard to find for shade too.
Heres a shot of the blue & white room when it was new. Now you can't even see in there it has grown into a nice plant cave!

Here it is now. No white foxgloves tho!

Bj, lovely garden room!

Lily, I've had good luck controlling where my digitalis reseed by laying stalks I'm deadheading where I want new plants. I only save a stalk or 2 from each color which keeps the number of seedlings down a bit. Then I start seeing these perfect little rows of seedlings; this makes me notice them and prevents me from weeding them out thoughtlessly. This is about the time of year I move the ones that are still too crowded to permanent homes.

Great thread, lilly digger. I, too, have been pondering the mysteries of foxglove of late...Just a question for Baa from the UK--I am growing two varieties of the Camelot series now--one is cream, the other white. Am I to presume that babies from these two could be other colors? They are planted in my "white" garden, so I'm hoping not. If the cream and white weren't so close, I'd be worried, but I'm kinda've thinking that all the babies will come out shades of white or cream. I am not growing any other colors....what do you think?

I would think they would all be shades of white & cream.
You wouldn't have any extra seeds as mine don't seem to be white, but purple, that's not too good in a white & blue garden. LOL!
Also is your white garden just shade? I have white Lychnis (Rose Campion) seeds I could trade you. I always wanted to do a black & white garden plot but haven't quite got there yet. I did do a "hot" garden the last 2 years, everything was red orange or yellow, that has been fun. Bj

Grow lote of colors together and let them self seed, you may be surprised by the new colors in later years. You may even get a new variety appear.

Yotedog

The seedlings of the Camelot Series are as likely to come out with pinks and purples as they are other whites and creams although for a few years you may have a a few more whites and creams than you would normally expect, they will revert in time. It's also worth considering that seedlings from F1 plants (F2s) have a tendancy to be quite poor in comparison to their parent.

There is an idea that you can tell if a D. purpurea is going to be purple or pink by the colour of the stems, some take on a light to quite strong purple tint if they are purple flowered. However, this is most definitely not an exact distinction between the colours, some pink and purple flowered have green stems but it's generally true that most D. purpurea with purpley stems tend to be purple or pink flowered.

That's good to know & look for. I didn't notice the stems & they are probably too far gone now to check. But I'll pay more annt. next season. Bj