Home Right plant right place Foxgloves – native wildflower to Chelsea champ

Foxgloves – native wildflower to Chelsea champ

From self-seeding Digitalis purpurea to Canary Island exotic crosses

Of all our native plants, I love foxgloves the most. Even the common foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, is stunning with its pink/purple blotched flower spikes, occasionally throwing up the white version, D. alba.

Although the common foxglove is usually a biennial, there are shrubby and perennial forms. There are always foxgloves lurking around the perimeters of my garden. They self-seed under the hedge and by the fence, where I’m happy to remove the misplaced ones. Read all about lazy gardening and native plants for wildlife here.

  • Growing biennials from seed
  • Growing biennials from seed
  • Growing biennials from seed
  • Growing biennials from seed
  • Growing biennials from seed
  • Foxglove looking great with Rheum and teasels

The first-year rosette on foxgloves

In the first year, you get a rosette of basal leaves, followed by a long, leafy stem the second year, which bears the flowers. It then sets seed and dies (or if you’re lucky, might go on).

My investment in a packet of rare and mixed foxglove seeds in 2013 for less than £2 paid dividends. The garden in 2014 was full of a variety of floral spires, reaching from 2ft to more than 6ft. The majority were shades of pink, but there were also white/cream and a beautiful delicate apricot.

Unfortunately, the tallest and most unusual colours were biennial. It’s a good rule of thumb to judge them by. The taller the flowers, the shorter the lifespan.

Foxgloves come into their own in late May/early June. The bulbs have finished and early spring bedding like wallflowers and pansies are ragged and past their best.

They’re also shade lovers, so I let them freely self-seed around the hedge boundaries. I like mine best with a combination of cow parsley, another biennial sweet rocket (Hesperis, lilac, and white), chives and alliums (ornamental onions), whose large globular white and purple heads contrast well with the tall foxgloves.

This is a very easy late-spring combination. Plant the allium bulbs in autumn and the rest are prolific self-seeders. Pull out what you don’t want and they’re excellent for pollinators.

See how to grow easy perennials from seed here.

Foxgloves Summer King and Candy Mountain
First-year foxgloves Summer King and Candy Mountain, July

Potted guide: foxgloves from seed

Potted guide

As well as native types, I can recommend Candy Mountain (upward-facing rose-pink blooms, 90-140cm) and Summer King (the strawberry foxglove, compact at 75cm).

  • Sow January-May on the surface of a good, free-draining, damp seed compost at a temperature of 18-29C. Lightly cover the seed with vermiculite.
  • Place in a propagator until after germination (usually takes 14-30 days). Do not exclude light.
  • Transplant seedlings when large enough to handle into trays or 7.5cm (3in) pots.
  • Gradually harden off for a few weeks before planting out after all risk of frost, 45-60cm (18-24in) apart.
  • Flowers you sow one year to bloom the next Many people don’t bother with biennials and that’s a shame. True, in a small garden, sowing flowers that aren’t going to bloom until the following year can seem a waste of space.
  • Group self-sown foxgloves
  • Growing biennials from seed
  • Foxglove
  • White variant of native foxglove
  • Foxglove nestled in the beech hedge
  • Foxglove Candy Mountain

Poison, drugs, folklore and Van Gogh

Foxgloves are poisonous, so if you have small children, be aware. Symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, jaundice or yellow and blurred vision.

The plant is used to make the drug digoxin, to regulate an irregular heartbeat.

The scientific name means ‘finger-like’ and refers to the ease with which the flower can be fitted over a fingertip.

One theory is that the name goes back to the early 1300s when the ‘folks’ of our ancestors were the fairies. However, more likely is that the coloured bells of the plant would be called ‘folksgloves’, afterwards, ‘foxglove’.

In Wales, they are supposed to be a favourite lurking place of the fairies. In Scotland, it is called ‘bloody fingers’ or ‘deadman’s bells’.

Foxgloves were once used by herbalists to treat epilepsy, now long abandoned because of the difficulty in determining the correct dose.

It’s been suggested that Van Gogh’s ‘Yellow Period’ was due to being prescribed foxgloves to control his seizures, plus ‘haloes’ in Starry Night and multiple self-portraits including the plant.

Foxglove Illumination Pink
Foxglove Illumination Pink

RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year 2012 – foxglove Illumination Pink

If you prefer something showier, 2012’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show-winning Plant of the Year was the foxglove Illumination Pink.

It’s a hybrid created by Thompson & Morgan between our native foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, and Isoplexis, from the Canary Islands. This latter genus was classified by botanists as separate from Digitalis, and the two would not make a successful cross.

However, Charles Valin, T&M’s plant breeder, tried the cross in 2006 and was successful. It has since been joined by sister plant Ruby Slippers, with spires of open-mouthed blooms in raspberry pink with contrasting apricot lips.

The plants are sterile and will bloom from May to November. The growing habit is also very distinct; multi-branching and compact, plants grow to a height of just 75cm. For more information, visit Thompson & Morgan.

Digitalis Firebird. Picture; Hardys
Digitalis Firebird. Picture; Hardys

RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year 2019: Digitalis Firebird

Taking second place is Digitalis x valinii Firebird bred in the UK by Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants. It has 90cm flowering spikes of warm reddish-pink with apricot tones from May to October.

A reliable perennial, it has a branching habit and is also attractive to pollinators. Read more about the other contenders here.

Isoplexis Bella. Picture; Suttons
Isoplexis Bella. Picture; Suttons

Isoplexis Bella

If you like your plants on the exotic side, then you’ll love Isoplexis Bella, a collaboration between Suttons and Hillier Nurseries.

This Canary Island foxglove has tropical looks, a voluptuous sub-shrub shape, profuse flowering, and nectar-rich flowers which attract bees, bright colours and drought tolerance.

The plants, up to 1m tall, are shaped like a candelabra, with fiery sunset shade flowers and ruby stems that appear to glow, even when not in flower. To read more on Isoplexis Bella, click here.

Foxgloves – native wildflower to Chelsea champ updated September 2022