If you are planning on adding foxgloves to your garden or have just started growing them then one question you may well have is how tall do they grow? Well, let’s have a look and find out.
How Tall Do Foxgloves Grow?
Not all foxgloves will reach this height and there are many factors that go into the size of a plant. The soil condition, the amount of light and the amount of other plant competition are all factors that will affect the final height of your foxgloves.
Think of this as more of a guide for what height foxgloves can reach in certain conditions. Often lots of competition from other plants will force foxgloves to grow high to reach sunlight.
If your border is really congested and you have noticed your foxgloves growing tall and leggy then thinning the border out a little and introducing more light could be a good idea.
My Foxgloves Are Just Growing And Not Flowering!
If your plants are in their first year then this is completely expected. Foxgloves are biennial plants, what this means is that they grow and establish themselves in the first year but do not flower.
They then go dormant over winter before returning to growth in the spring and then flowering in the summer. Once they have flowered they die off for good and will not come back again.
You can learn more about this in my post When Do Foxgloves Flower.
How To Get A Foxglove Display Every Year
So if you want flowers every year what do you need to do? The answer is simple but requires a little more work to set up.
Essentially you need to have a staggered system set up, where you have some foxgloves in their first year and some in their second year at all times.
This means you will never be without flowers come summertime.
And the best thing about growing your foxgloves like this is that once it is up and running you can leave the plants to it. They will self-seed every year giving you fresh plants every year.
Then because the flowering is staggered the seeding will be staggered. So you will have a perpetual cycle of young plants not flowering and older plants flowering from now on. It goes without saying that with this method you need to let the plants self-seed, so no overactive deadheading!
To find out more about this make sure you read my What To Do With Foxgloves After Flowering post.
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. These plants love to self-seed which is why you see so many of them in the wild.
As most people are aware foxgloves are poisonous if digested. The active ingredient in foxgloves that makes them poisonous also works as a medicine and 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.
Numerous reports have also been amde 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!