Can You Grow Foxgloves In Pots

Can You Grow Foxgloves In Pots?

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Want to grow foxgloves but you’re a little tight on space? You might have thought of growing foxgloves in pots or containers, but is this possible? Can you grow foxgloves in pots?

Can You Grow Foxgloves In Pots
Can You Grow Foxgloves In Pots

Can You Grow Foxgloves In Pots?

Being a biennial plant makes container growing a little more difficult if you want a flowering plant every year. You would have to have one plant flowering in the pot while another grows somewhere else in the garden ready to be moved into the pot in its second year.

One easy way around this problem is to simply buy second-year foxgloves from the garden centre in springtime before they come into bloom.

When growing foxgloves in pots it can be advantageous to get an early start with your seed sowing, learn more in my article titled When To Sow Foxglove Seeds.

Foxgloves are available in a range of colours, so I am sure you will find the perfect one for your patio!

Get A Large Pot

The first place to start is with a large pot, while foxgloves will grow in smaller pots they will be a shadow of the plant you see growing in a border.

If you want the real deal then you need a large pot. Much like lupins when grown in pots the size of the pot determines the size of the plant.

I recommend a pot that is at least 50cm across and 30cm deep. You can use smaller plants and you will get nice flowers from your foxglove but the plant may be more compact than usual.

Fill With Compost

Foxgloves like rich but light soil, so multipurpose compost is ideal. Fill the pot with multipurpose compost and plant your foxglove.

Companion Plants

A few smaller plants around the base of the foxglove can work well. They can fill in this space and also provide a little shade to the roots of your foxglove plants.

Something like a trialling lobelia can work really well for this purpose.

Water Regularly

Watering can be a problem for lots of container-grown plants but is especially apparent with larger plants like foxgloves.

They suck up all the water in a pot quickly, so you just need to be well aware of this and make sure you keep on top of your watering.

Don’t just give them a splash of water a few times a day though. One big watering session where it penetrates deep into the soil is much better for the plant than a regular surface watering.

Do all this right and you can get flowers out of your foxgloves all summer long.

More On Foxgloves

Foxgloves (Digitalis) is a flowering plant that actually contains biennials, perennials and shrubs all under the common name foxglove.

These plants are native to Europe and even parts of northern Africa, they are woodland plants and as such love a little bit of shade.

As most people are aware foxgloves are poisonous if digested. The active ingredient in foxgloves that makes them poisonous also works as a medicine as as such numerous drugs are made using foxgloves.

Fatalities are rare from foxgloves but they do occur and for this reason, it is important to take care when gardening with foxglove, wear gloves when handling them and make sure you avoid touching your eyes or mouth after handling them.

Most fatalities actually occur when the plant has been mistaken for something else and digested in large quantities.

There have also been numerous reports of young children dying after drinking the vase water that foxgloves have been in. This is definitely something to think about if you plan on using them as a cut flower and your house has children or grandchildren in it!

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