This spring I added some foxglove to my garden – 2 out in full sun and one a little bit sheltered by the house but with lots of sun. I am enjoying their unusual shaped contrasting nicely with the rest of my flowers. They have tall spires with individual tubular flowers all down the spires, blooming at different times. These plants are doing well in the open area, enjoying our rainy spring and our very hot summer this year. The sheltered plant looks perfectly healthy but has not a bloom in sight. I wondered why it has been so many years since I planted foxglove in one of my gardens, and then i realized that foxglove are a biennial – they only seem to last about 2 years and when they are grown from seed, they only bloom in the second year. Aha – that explains my non-bloomer.

After a heavy rain, my floxgloves lay low, so I’m thinking I might give them some support next year.

I’m enjoying the white and lilac coloured blooms now, and they are not as tall as the 3-6 feet advertised on the package, but at 2 and a half feet, they look nice. Instead of deadheading them, I am allowing seedheads to form, and I will collect them for next year’s garden!